Tuesday, 7 January 2014 - 19:01
Evacuation "grenade" home Limburg takes longer
The evacuation of a home, containing several World War II items, on the Tielensstraat, is taking longer than planned. After consultation between the police and the Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EODD) Saturday, the decision was made to lock down the house again and place it under guard, to avoid a dangerous situation for the neighborhood. The EODD and police started the evacuation of the house on Monday morning around 11:00. This past Saturday the police had already made a rough draw of the inventory of the collector of World War II items. Monday the house was meticulously searched from top to bottom.
Police investigate a house on Tielensstraat in Geleen for WWII explosives (George Bakx/Twitter)
Experts sorted suspicious form non-suspicious objects. The suspicious objects were photographed, analyzed, and categorized according to the laws of arms and ammunition. No grenades or artillery munitions were found, only a limited amount of light ammunition. In addition, a large number of empty shells and various parts of firearms from World War II found on Tuesday.
The EODD works meticulous, which takes more time. For that reason the teams came to the decision to continue on Tuesday. Any suspicious objects found, were secured by the EODD within the home. The house was locked down and guarded to ensure the safety of the neighborhood. Wednesday police experts and EODD will continue working on safely moving any suspicious objects to another location to be destroyed.
The City of Sittard-Geleen will keep the locals informed about the evacuation of the house through a letter.
In the night of Friday on Saturday police received a report around 01:00 that a confused man was threatening customers and staff in a café on the Rijksweg-Centrum. The 41-year-old Geleen local was eventually found on the Nachtegaalstraat, where he was arrested. He was in the possession of three grenades. An investigation showed the grenades did not pose a threat to the surrounding, because the had already been deactivated. At the request of police the EODD was deployed to secure the grenades.
With assistance from the EODD, police had already inspected the house on Saturday. There appeared to be no danger to the neighborhood, leading to the decision to start the professional evacuation on Monday. The home was locked down and under constant guard during the weekend.
The suspect is still detained and will appear before the court on Wednesday.