Netherlands
Hostage takers threatened café employees with knives
In the Dutch city of Ede, the police launched a major operation due to a hostage situation. photo
© Aleksandar Furtula/AP/dpa
The major operation in the Dutch town of Ede near Arnhem is over. Several people were held in a café for several hours.
During the bloodless hostage-taking in the Dutch city In Ede, four people were threatened with knives by a perpetrator known to the police. The public prosecutor announced this at a press conference. The hostage taker also had a backpack with him. Whether there were actually explosives in it, as was initially feared, still needs to be investigated.
According to the information, the perpetrator had a criminal record. Senior public prosecutor Marthyne Kunst said there was initially no information about his motive for taking hostages after a party in the “Petticoat” café in the center of Ede. “We will now carry out detailed investigations into this, as well as into the mental state of the suspect.”
The hostages were four employees of the party café. The senior public prosecutor explained that there was no direct relationship between them and the alleged perpetrator.
The hostage-taking, which began early in the morning, lasted several hours. A large police force cordoned off the area in the center of the city, Dutch media reported. For safety reasons, 150 apartments in the center of Ede, which is not far from Arnhem and the border with Germany, were evacuated.