Witnesses described scenes of panic as gunshots rang out and thousands of commuters and tourists were evacuated from the rail terminal shortly after midday.

News 18 Dutch police were investigating Saturday a suspected terror attack at Amsterdam’s Central Station, in which two people were stabbed before the knifeman was shot by police. The assailant was identified as a 19-year-old Afghan Muslim man with a German residency permit.

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

Earlier witnesses described scenes of panic as gunshots rang out and thousands of commuters and tourists were evacuated from the rail terminus shortly after midday.

“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.” One witness said he saw a young man “stumble” into his flower shop at the station with a bleeding wound to his hand

“Shortly afterwards I heard some shots and I know something has gone badly wrong,” Richard Snelders told the ANP news agency. A while later he saw another man lying on the ground nearby, he said.

“The first thing that comes up in your mind is that it’s an Islamic terror attack. After all, you are at Amsterdam Central Station. There was a lot of panic,” Snelders said.

Police quickly arrived at the scene with video images showing police ordering the suspect in English to “stay down” after he had been shot. The Muslim knifeman’s condition was not life-threatening, but that he had been shot in the lower body.