Dutch police have shot a man wielding a knife at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

The threat forced a brief evacuation of parts of the airport, one of Europe's busiest. But police said it was not being treated as a terror incident.

"The circumstances are telling us that it has nothing to do with terrorism," police spokesman Stan Verberkt said.

Police said the man walked into the police service's office at the airport and threatened staff with a knife. Officers shot him in the leg and arrested him before transporting him to a hospital.

Image: Police officers run through the airport after the shooting. Pic: INSTAGRAM/ @aapopski

A tweet from Dutch military police read: "Man at Schiphol shot at by the military police, after he made threats with a knife. Situation safe."


The suspect remains in custody. No details of his condition were released and a motive is unclear.

Image: Police at the scene in Schiphol airport. Pic: @TreehouseTravlR

A spokesman for the airport said the main plaza was evacuated and part of it is still closed off, but that the areas after check-in were operating as normal.

#schiphol eerste beelden incident op schiphol. Man met mes neergeschoten door Marechaussee 2 pic.twitter.com/HYwiHkTwy9 — mlohnen (@mlohnen) December 15, 2017

They added: "Schiphol Plaza was initially evacuated but is open to the public again. At the moment air traffic is not affected."

Trains were temporarily not stopping, but are now going in and out of the airport station as normal.

Image: Police have said no trains were running in or out of the airport pic: @TreehouseTravIR

Video shared on social media shows a man being taken out of the airport on a stretcher.

Schiphol airport, just outside Amsterdam, is one of Europe's five busiest airports. It handled a record 63.6m passengers during 2016.