Hail-like damage to cars mystifies Limburg

By Janene Pieters on March 13, 2015 - 20:35
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A Rotterdam-Feyenoord fire department truck (AlfvanBeem/Wikimedia). (A Rotterdam-Feyenoord fire department truck (AlfvanBeem/Wikimedia))

Damage to a handful of cars in a Born, Limburg parking lot has the fire department somewhat baffled. The damage, which resembles hail damage, has no apparent source and is isolated to the one lot, with no cars damaged outside it.

It is not clear when the damage took place, a town representative said, but photos of the pock-marked cars started surfacing late Thursday night.

The fire department first thought that the damage to the paintwork and windows was caused by black grains that fell from the air, RTL Nieuws reports. But on closer inspection that turned out to be an organic substance that could not have damaged the cars.

The damaged cars are parked in a large parking lot at the Holtum-Noord business park, close to the A2 and the car factory NedCar. New cars from automobile factories are temporarily parked ther before the go to the dealership. The hundreds of cars parked outside the NedCar factory were not damaged at all.

According to a spokesperson for the fire department, inquiries at surrounding businesses found that there were no discharges, failures or incidents. The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) also confirms that no sand or volcanic ash landed in Born.

The fire department will continue the investigation today.

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