Though not to the same extent as other European nations like France or Britain, the Netherlands has seen a number of terror acts and plans.
Police in a central Netherlands town reported that many people were being held hostage on Saturday. The town’s centre was closed and residents’ homes were evacuated.
As of right now, police stated, there is no cause to assume that the incident in Ede had a “terrorist motive.”
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Police claimed in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that “a hostage situation involving several people is underway in a building in the centre” of the town of Ede.
Although the exact number of people detained is unknown, local media has stated that four or five people are implicated.
Authorities reported that they had broken the block around a cafe and evacuated about 150 homes’ worth of occupants.
The town centre has been cordoned off, and riot police and explosives experts are on the scene, according to the local municipality’s website.
Authorities issued a warning to locals to stay away from the town centre, and they diverted train traffic.
“The purpose appears to be the subject of numerous questions. There isn’t now any evidence of a terrorist motive, according to the authorities.
While there have been several terror incidents and conspiracies in the Netherlands, they have not been as widespread as in other European nations like France or Britain.
A shooting spree that left four people dead on a tram in the city of Utrecht in 2019 shocked the nation.
Gokmen Tanis, a man of Turkish descent, subsequently acknowledged that his rampage, which essentially closed down the nation’s fourth-largest city, had been motivated by terror.
Dutch police accused two alleged jihadists of preparing a terror assault in 2019 that would have included car bombs and suicide devices. Authorities claimed that year there was a planned strike.
After stabbing two American tourists at Amsterdam Central Station in 2018, a young Afghan guy going by the name “Jawed S.” told judges he wanted “to protect the Prophet Mohammed.”
The attack happened the day after far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders declared he was calling off his intention to hold a competition for cartoonists to create parodies of the Prophet Mohammed.
Zabihullah Mujahid, an Afghan Taliban spokesman at the time, called on Muslims to assault Dutch forces in retaliation for Wilders’ “hostile act by this country (the Netherlands) against all Muslims.”
Outspoken Dutch anti-Islamic film maker Theo van Gogh was fatally shot and stabbed in 2004 in Amsterdam by an individual connected to a Dutch Islamist terror network, in what is considered the most serious event involving a terror attack.
