Another grenade found in Amsterdam

The police found what they believe is a hand grenade at Bijlmerplein in Amsterdam during the early hours of Thursday morning. They responded to the scene around 4:00 a.m. after a report of shots being fired, the Amsterdam police said on Twitter.

On Bijlmerplein they found no injured person, but did find a possible grenade on the street. Defense's explosive disposal team is at the scene, NU.nl reports. The police are waiting for the team to finish its work before they can start a trace evidence investigation.

The area is closed down as a crime scene. Local residents are asked to stay indoors. "But the discovery happened at a time when, thankfully, most people were still in bed", a police spokesperson said to the newspaper.

A hand grenade was also found in Amsterdam on Wednesday morning, in front of a hotel near one of the southern entrances of Vondelpark. That same morning another explosive was found on on Lemelerbergweg in Zuidoost. Whether that was also a hand grenade, is not yet clear.

Earlier this month Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security told parliament that since the start of last year there were 16 incidents involving hand grenades left at businesses in the Netherlands. In ten of those cases the grenade exploded. Criminals use this method to put pressure on entrepreneurs.