Three stabbed in The Hague shopping area

Dutch police were hunting an assailant who stabbed three minors in The Hague's main shopping street as people looked for bargains on Black Friday.

The male attacker ran off after the incident at a department store in the city centre that caused scenes of panic among the crowds of shoppers.

"We are currently taking all scenarios into account," a police spokeswoman was quoted as saying by the ANP news agency about the attack, which came hours after two people died in a terror-related stabbing in London.

Forensics officers work near the site of a stabbing on a shopping street in The Hague, Netherlands. Reuters

All three victims were minors, police said, without giving their ages. They were all later allowed to go home from hospital.

The stabbing happened at the Hudson's Bay department store in Grote Marktstraat, the city's biggest shopping area, which is lined with major retailers and brands.

Two teenage girls came running into the store after being stabbed, broadcaster NOS quoted witnesses as saying.

"I saw two girls screaming and running away. A man fled. He jumped very athletically over benches to get away. He looked like a cheetah," one witness told NOS.

"People were trying to get away. but that didn't work. I was shocked."

Police initially gave a description of a man they were looking for aged between 40 and 50 but later withdrew it, saying they were still investigating.

"We are still looking for the perpetrator," they said, adding that they were conducting "extensive investigations".

Images on social media showed shoppers running in panic away from the scene, on a nighttime retail street lit by Christmas fairy lights.

Agence France-Presse