The Hague, Aug 24 (IANS): The Dutch police have arrested a Spanish man driving a van with gas cannisters near a concert venue in Rotterdam, hours after a tip-off over a terror threat in the city, authorities said.

The terror threat earlier on Wednesday prompted US rock band Allah-Las to cancel their gig slated to take place at the Rotterdam Maassilo, the concert venue, reports CNN.

Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb received the warning of the threat from the Spanish police that an attack was planned during the concert.

According to Aboutaleb, the threat was serious enough to cancel the concert.

The Spanish man was arrested later on Wednesday night after the police stopped his van inside a cordoned off area near the venue at around 9:30 p.m., the Mayor told the media in the early hours of Thursday.

About five gas cannisters were found in the van and a bomb squad was called to the scene as a precaution.

However, the city authorities did not offer additional details on the terror threat.

Rotterdam Police press officer Roland Ekkers said it was too soon to say if the van was directly connected.

"It can also be someone who was going to a camping site, but with the threat that we have, and what we found in the van, we decided to investigate," CNN quoted Ekkers as saying.

In a reaction, the Dutch National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV) stated that the event does not mean the threat level in the Netherlands should be raised, reports Xinhua news agency.

The terrorist threat level in the Netherlands is on a "substantial" level 4, since March 2013.

That means the chance of an attack in the Netherlands is real but there are no specific indications that terrorists are preparing to carry out an attack in the Netherlands.

It is reported that the event in Rotterdam is not connected to last week's attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils that killed 15 people and left over 100 others injured.