Dutch kids back safe in Netherlands after witnessing London attack

Students of the Mollerlyceum in Bergen op Zoom returned home on Thursday night after some of them witnessed a terrorist attack in London on Wednesday afternoon. Despite what happened, school group 't Rijks in Bergen op Zoom is not planning to cancel other school trips.

"I was standing just there fifteen minutes ago, that was the most bizarre of all", Marie-Claire Slimmen, one of the students who witnessed the attack, said to Omroep Brabant. Like many of her classmates, she only later realized what happened. "I got a message from my friend asking if I was okay. And I thought: what are you talking about? He said that there was an attack. At first I couldn't understand, very weird."

Despite this being the second time that a group from Mollerlyceum witnessed an attack - another group was present at an attack on a Christmas market in Germany in December - 't Rijks will continue with school trips as normal, deputy rector Lambert van de Wiel said to BN De Stem. "We will not let terrorism restrict us. Our extended tours and exchange programs will continue as normal." The only current exception is Turkey - tours organized for Turkey now have another destination. 

According to Van de Wiel, the number of kids wanting to go on school trips hasn't decreased since terrorists attacks started in Europe. "It's even better than previous years. We also haven't seen parents refusing." The number of teachers willing to go along also remained stable.