Police operation: Netherlands: Hostage taking after party in café – Panorama – Schwarzwälder Bote
Police operation in the Netherlands: hostages taken after a party in a café
By Petra Aulbach, dpa March 30, 2024 – 5:25 p.m
After the hostage-taking in a café in Ede, Netherlands, the traces are secured. Photo: Christoph Reichwein/dpa
First party, then panic. A hostage taker threatens to use explosives. The police react promptly. Hundreds of people are brought to safety. Anxious hours pass before the all-clear is given.
Ede – After a wild celebration in a café in Ede, the Netherlands, a 28-year-old man took four of the restaurant’s employees hostage. Heavily armed police officers then take up positions in the city, almost 30 minutes’ drive from the German border.
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The man holds the employees down for hours and threatens them with knives. The situation remains unclear for a long time – until the first hostages are released. Then again minutes of uncertainty for the emergency services. Finally the hostage taker gives up. Breathe a sigh of relief before the holidays. The background to the crime is still completely unclear.
Videos and images show the masked man leaving the building with his hands raised and being led away. According to the public prosecutor’s office, he is known to the police: The man from Ede had already been convicted of a “threat” last year. No details were given.
Investigator: No terror
Senior public prosecutor Marthyne Kunst says that the suspect threatened the restaurant’s four employees with knives after the over-16 party ended. They were just cleaning up after the party. The man also has a black backpack with him. It is feared that there could be explosives inside. An explosives robot later gives the all-clear.
The man’s motive is still unknown. “We will now carry out detailed investigations into this, as well as into the mental state of the suspect,” says the senior public prosecutor. However, investigators do not believe there was a terrorist motive. Recently there have been repeated warnings of attacks in Europe.
Large-scale evacuation
“We were on site within two minutes, the situation seemed to be very serious,” reports Anne Jan Oosterheert, the police operations manager. “There was talk of explosives and knives had been seen.” In view of this difficult threat to assess, a large-scale operation was launched with all available forces, including a heavily armed special unit.
Train traffic to Ede train station is at a standstill. Hundreds of people are taken from their homes in the area surrounding the crime scene and brought to safety. The entire area is cordoned off on a large scale. Speculation and rumors ran rampant on social networks during the operation. The hope of a good outcome to the hostage situation is not fulfilled until midday.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte later expressly thanked the emergency services and relief services for their professional handling of the crisis. Mayor René Verhulst speaks of a “terrible situation” for those affected during the hostage-taking. And he appeals to the residents: out of consideration for the hostages and their relatives, such recordings should not be shared on social networks.