Bomb scares were false alarms

25 March 2004

AMSTERDAM — A bomb scare that forced the evacuation of Amsterdam Central Station at about 1.30pm on Thursday proved to be a false alarm. A second bomb scare at Roosendaal was also a false alarm.

Police said the Amsterdam bomb threat was made at about 1.15pm on Thursday, but refused to reveal who made the warning or what measures had been taken. A spokesman said police know who made the bomb threat.

A separate bomb threat also forced the cancellation of train travel at the city of Roosendaal at about 1.45pm, rail network administrator Prorail said. The Roosendaal station was also evacuated.

Police had directed large crowds of train passengers, shop employees and staff of Dutch rail operator NS out of Central Station towards the Prins Hendrikkade and Damrak intersection in Amsterdam. No one was allowed near the station and riot police were called in to maintain order.

All train travel to and from the Dutch capital was halted, construction work on the Noord-Zuidlijn metro line was stopped and trams, busses or metros were not stopping at or near Central Station either, newspaper De Telegraaf reported.

The evacuation of the station was completed at about 1.45pm and several “bomb spotters” were deployed to look for suspicious objects.

If anything suspicious was found, experts with the EOD bomb disposal unit would have been called in, but the station was given the all clear at about 2.30pm.

The bomb scare at Roosendaal was also a false alarm and authorities gave the all-clear at about 4pm, news agency ANP reported.

Thursday’s bomb scares come after the A4 motorway at Rijswijk and train travel between The Hague and Delft was cancelled due to the discovery of a suspect package on Wednesday morning.

No explosives were found in the package and the motorway and railway was reopened later that day. After the Madrid bombings earlier this month, police are taking every threat seriously.

Subject: Dutch news