Area around Heerenveen stadium closed due to bomb threat; false alarm

The area around the Abe Lenstra Stadium in Heerenveen was closed down on Wednesday morning due to a bomb threat directed at football club SC Heerenveen, the police said. The police are at the scene with sniffer dogs.

"It was a serious report, which is why we are investigating", a spokesperson for the police said to NU.nl. "We haven't found anything yet, that can take some time." The police are searching a large area. The spokesperson could not say where the threat came from.

The stadium itself and Sportstad Heerenveen, located next to the stadium, are closed off. The Friesland College was also closed off initially, but has since been released. "That area has already been investigated and nothing was found", the police spokesperson said.

No evacuation was needed, because there was no one in the buildings when the police arrived at around 7:00 a.m. 

A spokesperson for sc Heerenveen did not want to tell newspaper AD who received the threat or at what time. He did say that employees of the club and manager Sportstad Heerenveen already gathered at 5:30 a.m. They made sure that there were no people in the buildings and that everything was turned off.

A training session for sc Heerenveen's first team on Wednesday morning was canceled, according to the Leeuwarder Courant. The team doesn't train at the stadium, but at sports complex Langezwaag near the stadium.