Woman arrested after assaulting child at Dutch amusement park Efteling

A 43-year-old woman from Tilburg was arrested on Thursday night for assaulting a young child at a bus stop in front of amusement park Efteling. A security guard in the Kaatsheuvel park saw on surveillance cameras how the woman hit the child in the face at least ten times. He called the police, Omroep Brabant reports.

The police were called in around 9:30 p.m. According to the police, the child is younger than 5-years-old and is now in the care of youth protection. The woman is in custody. Whether the woman is the child's mother is unclear.

Earlier on Thursday other Efteling visitors reported that the woman was violent with the child, according to the park. Efteling does not want to comment on this specific case - "It's now in the hands of the police" - but was willing to explain to Omroep Brabant how they usually handle such incidents.

"Normally we keep an eye on the situation if people report something like this. We also definitely start a conversation", a spokesperson said to the broadcaster. If the situation remains unchanged, the police are called in. "Our security officers do not have the same powers as the police." The Efteling security officers are trained to notice unwanted situation. "With 4.7 million visitors, you can unfortunately not exclude this type of incident."