Bomb scare halts Breda-Tilburg rail travel

6 April 2004

AMSTERDAM — With police on edge after the Madrid bombings last month, a suitcase and toiletries bag left behind in a broken down train at Gilze-Rijen on Tuesday led to the latest in a series of bomb scares across the Netherlands.

Train travel between Breda and Tilburg was shut down at about 9.15am after a conductor raised alarm about the suspicious luggage. The Gilze-Rijen station was also evacuated and commuters faced delays of about one hour.

But an examination by the EOD bomb disposal squad indicated there were no explosives in the luggage and train travel resumed 2.5 hours later, news agency ANP reported.

Dutch rail operator NS has lost hundreds of thousands of euros recently due to a series of bomb threat hoaxes and the discoveries of suspicious packages at various stations and on trains.

Train travel to and from Utrecht and Culemborg was shut down for several hours on Monday after a suspicious package was found on a train at Utrecht Central. Amsterdam, Roosendaal and Leiden have also been the scene of bomb scares recently.

Subject: Dutch news