Dutch police were liable for a 2011 mall shooting in which six people were killed as the gunman should never have been granted an gun licence, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The surprise ruling comes as the issue of gun control is high on the global agenda following a series of deadly armed assaults in the United States.

The Netherlands was thrown into mourning after Tristan van der Vlis went on a Saturday lunchtime shooting spree in the town of Alphen aan de Rijn in April 2011.

Six people died and 16 were wounded as Van der Vlis fired three weapons, unleashing a hail of automatic gunfire in the packed mall, before turning the gun on himself.

A member of a shooting club, the 24-year-old had been given a gun permit in 2008. He said in a letter to his parents before the attack that he was unhappy, and wanted to commit suicide.

"The police are liable for the personal injury and the deaths caused by the shooting at the De Ridderhof shopping centre," the court said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The standard that a gun licence must be refused if there are any concerns about abuse is there precisely to protect citizens from the damaging consequences of such abuse," it said.

The appeals court in The Hague overturned an earlier 2015 ruling by a lower court, which merely said the police had made mistakes.

Instead, Tuesday's ruling found that police had been negligent in granting Van der Vlis a licence to own guns after his previous application in 2005 had been turned down because he was found to have illegally fired an airgun.

It had also emerged that Van der Vlis suffered from psychological problems, dating back to 2006, which should have raised a red flag with police.

The judges therefore "ordered the police to pay compensation to the families of those killed as well as the wounded", and to pay the court costs of the 51 plaintiffs.

For the normally peaceful Dutch, unused to large-scale violence, the shooting came as a shock. One witness called it the day the country "lost its innocence." </s> Dutch police are liable for a mass shooting because the gunman should never have been granted a firearms licence, a court has ruled.

Tristan van der Vlis killed six people and injured 16 others when he unleashed a hail of automatic gunfire in a packed shopping mall in April 2011.

The 24-year-old later died after turning the gun on himself. In a letter to his parents before the attack, Van der Vlis said he was unhappy and wanted to kill himself.

The Netherlands was left in mourning after the attack in Alphen aan de Rijn - with one witness describing it as the day the country "lost its innocence".

An appeals court has now concluded that the police were negligent in granting Van der Vlis a licence to own guns, as a previous application by the attacker was rejected because he had illegally fired an airgun.

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Van der Vlis also suffered from psychological problems dating back to 2006, which should have raised a red flag with the police.

The appeal court's judgment quashes a 2015 ruling by a lower court which concluded that the police had merely made mistakes in the case.

As a result, the judges have ordered the police to pay compensation to the families of those killed and wounded - in addition to the court costs of 51 plaintiffs.

The surprise ruling comes as the issue of gun control is high on the global agenda following a series of deadly shootings in the US. </s> UTRECHT, Netherlands (Reuters) - Dutch police arrested a Turkish man suspected of shooting dead three people and wounding five on a tram in the Dutch city of Utrecht on Monday.

Utrecht police announced the suspect, 37-year-old Gokmen Tanis, had been taken into custody.

The city was put into lockdown after the shooting, shortly after the morning rush hour, which authorities initially said was an apparent terrorist attack. Police conducted raids in several locations.

But hours after the shooting, the gunman's motive remained unclear. A prosecutor said it could be for "family reasons" and Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency, quoting relatives of the gunman, said he had fired at a relative on the tram and had then shot at others who tried to help her.

Helicopters hovered over the usually quiet mediaeval town.

Authorities had raised the terrorism threat in Utrecht province to its highest level, schools were told to shut their doors and paramilitary police increased security at airports, other vital infrastructure and at mosques.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte convened crisis talks immediately after the incident, which came three days after a lone gunman killed 50 people in mass shootings at two mosques in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand.

"Our country has today been shocked by an attack in Utrecht... A terrorist motive cannot be excluded," Rutte said.

"The first reports have led to disbelief and disgust. Innocent people have been struck by violence... We are now doing everything we can to find the perpetrator or perpetrators as soon as possible. That is now our complete focus."

The mayor of Utrecht, Jan van Zanen, said three people had been killed and nine injured, three of them seriously. The number of injured was later lowered to five.

Dutch police issued an image of Tanis and warned the public not to approach him.

The suspect had had previous run-ins with police, the prosecutor said. Local broadcaster RTV Utrecht said earlier the suspect was known to police for both minor and major crimes, including a shooting in 2013.

The shooting took place in Kanaleneiland, a quiet residential district on the outskirts of Utrecht with a large immigrant population.

"It’s frightening that something like this can happen so close to home," said Omar Rahhou, who said his parents lived on a street cordoned off by police. "These things normally happen far away but this brings it very close, awful."

Witness Daan Molenaar, who said he had been sitting at the front of the tram when the shooting started, told national broadcaster NOS he did not believe it was a terrorist attack.

"The first thing I thought was, this is some kind of revenge or something, or somebody who's really mad and grabbed a pistol," he said.

The streets of Utrecht were emptier than usual and mosques in the city kept their doors closed on Monday. Police screened off the site where at least one body lay covered near the tram.

Dutch television showed counter-terrorism units surrounding a house in Utrecht and sniffer dogs being put to work.

Utrecht, the Netherlands' fourth largest city with a population of around 340,000, is known for its picturesque canals and large student population. Gun killings are rare in Utrecht, as elsewhere in the Netherlands.

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.

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A Dutch court rules police are liable for a mass shooting at a shopping centre that killed six and wounded sixteen because the gunman should not have been issued a firearms licence.