A knife attacker on Friday stabbed two people at Amsterdam's Central Station before being shot by police in a suspected terror attack, Dutch police said.

The suspect was identified late on Friday evening as a 19-year-old Afghan man with a German residency permit.

"We are seriously taking into account that there was a terrorist motive," Frans Zuiderhoek, Amsterdam police spokesman, told AFP.

Witnesses described scenes of panic earlier as gunshots sounded and thousands of commuters and tourists were evacuated from the rail terminus shortly after midday.

"Around 12.10 a man in the west side tunnel of Amsterdam Central Station stabbed two other people and directly after that he was shot by the police," another police spokesman Rob van der Veen said, adding terrorism was not being ruled out by investigators.

"The two people are very badly injured, and they were brought to the hospital," he said.

"We are looking at all scenarios, also the worst scenario, which is terrorism."