One killed as van hits fans at Dutch music festival

Representational Image

A van ploughed into a group of people attending a Dutch music festival, killing one of them on Monday. Police detained a suspect hours later.

The pre-dawn crash took place near a camping site close to the famous Pinkpop festival in the southeastern municipality of Landgraaf in the Dutch province of Limburg, the BBC reported.

The 35-year-old man who died in the incident was a festival volunteer, organisers said. Three other people were critically injured in the incident, hours after the three-day Pinkpop festival ended.

Later, police arrested a 34-year-old man from Amsterdam on suspicion of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter.

The van had been driven away from the scene prompting a search across the border into Belgium and Germany. It was several hours before police said they had found the vehicle abandoned on the street where the collision had happened.

The organisers behind the festival said in a statement posted to Facebook that they were "deeply shocked" by the news.

The head of Pinkpop Jan Smeets said it was the first death in the festival's 49-year history. "It's really terrible, that such a great party should come to such an abrupt end."

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates