ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- Alerted by a tip from Spanish colleagues, Dutch police arrested a man early Thursday and questioned him about whether he was preparing an attack on a concert in Rotterdam by an American rock band.
But the Dutch justice minister suggested later in the day that the man may only have sent a threatening message.
The 22-year-old was being interrogated to determine exactly what his role was in the threat, police spokesman Svetlana Westermeijer said. No charges were filed.
The arrest in a town identified by Dutch media as Zevenbergen in Brabant province, south of Rotterdam, came hours after police canceled a performance Wednesday night by Los Angeles band Allah-Las at a converted grain silo in the heart of the port city.
"The suspicion is that the suspect is involved in the preparation of a terrorist attack," Rotterdam Police Chief Frank Paauw said.
"There is no terror threat now anymore," he added. "There is no threat because we have arrested a suspect, and the information about the threat was so specific on the location of the event that, with that arrest, we can conclude that the threat is gone."
If authorities want to prolong the man's detention, they will have to arraign him at a private hearing with an investigative judge before the end of today, prosecution spokesman Jeichien de Graaff said.
Police searched the man's home after his arrest but released no details of anything they found. His identity wasn't released, in line with Dutch privacy guidelines.
Security and Justice Minister Stef Blok, in an interview with BNR radio, suggested the suspect may only have spread the threat on a social media platform, though Blok didn't give details.
"The person who spread the message has been picked up and he will be questioned," said Blok, referring to the man who was arrested. "We are very curious to hear from him why he carried out this idiotic action."
Meanwhile, a Spanish mechanic detained Wednesday night while driving, apparently drunk, a white van containing a number of gas canisters close to the concert venue didn't appear to be a terror suspect, police said. Police said a search of his home uncovered nothing to indicate he was linked to the threat. Explosives experts who combed through the van's contents found a few gas canisters but nothing suspicious, police said.
Dutch counterterror coordinator Dick Schoof commended the police action, tweeting that it was "alert, appropriate for the current threat level."
Schoof left the country's threat level unchanged at "substantial," the fourth step of a five-level scale.
It wasn't clear what the nature of the threat to the concert was, or if the band's name played any role in the threat.
In an interview with The Guardian last year, band members said they chose the word Allah, Arabic for God, because they were seeking a "holy-sounding" name and didn't realize it might cause offense.
Police in Warsaw, Poland, beefed up security for the band's performance there Thursday night.
Warsaw police spokesman Robert Szumiata said police had no information of any threat to the concert to be held at the downtown Heaven club.
Still, he said, uniformed and plainclothes police will be deployed at and around the concert site to "ensure security of people taking part in the concert and those who will find themselves in the area."
Information for this article was contributed by Aritz Parra and Monika Scislowska of The Associated Press.
A Section on 08/25/2017