Dutch police evacuate Paris-bound train, arrest man

Police in the Netherlands have arrested a man who locked himself in a toilet of a Thalys high-speed train heading for Paris early Friday.

The train was evacuated as a precaution at Rotterdam Central Station.

The incident comes less than a month after passengers subdued a gunman on board a Thalys train in northern France as it was traveling from Amsterdam to Paris, also on a Friday.

Police said in tweets that the arrest went off without incident, although the man was taken to hospital because he had hyperventilated after his arrest, and one officer was hurt when he was bitten by a police dog.

Police are continuing to search the train and are going through a backpack that they believe belonged to the man.

No further information about him was immediately available.

Rail services to and from Rotterdam were severely disrupted, Dutch rail authorities said.

Thalys said it was allowing passengers to cancel or postpone journeys planned for Friday without charge.

Earlier, the high-speed rail provider said in a tweet that, “Security forces have situation under control. No risk for our passengers.”

NOS state television pictures showed heavily armed police with protective shields and equipment scanning the train cars and searching inside.

Last week, European rail operators met with interior and justice ministry officials to discuss whether to beef up train security in the European Union.

The consensus from those talks was that no disproportionate and costly security action should be taken that would hinder high-speed international rail traffic in the European Union.

This means it is unlikely that metal detectors would be installed in European stations and that passenger information would not be systematically collected.

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