Woman nearly abducted in Brabant town; police call for witnesses

A woman was nearly abducted in the Noord-Brabant town of Vlijmen on Monday, May 6th. A man pulled her from her bicycle and tried to push her into a car, but she managed to get away. The police are looking for witnesses or anyone with information that may aid in this investigation.

The attempted abduction happened at round 10:35 p.m. The woman was cycling over Heidjijk in Vlijmen and onto Moerputtenweg, on her way to work in Den Bosch. There was little to no traffic at that time. She heard a car approaching from behind her, and was overtaken at high speed a moment later.

The victim suspects that the driver was not familiar with the area, because he did not know about a large concrete block placed on the road ahead to keep cars off the cycle path. The motorist braked hard at the concrete block, turned his car around and started speeding towards the woman. She had to cycle off the road to prevent a collision.

A few moments later she was grabbed from behind and pulled off her bike by a man. The man dragged her towards the car she had seen before. He said, in Dutch, that nothing would happen if she cooperated, but that he would kill her if she didn't. The right rear door of the car was open and the man tried to push the victim into the car. She managed to slam the door shut, and with great difficulty get away from the man. The man got into his car and drove away.

The woman quickly cycled to her workplace, from where she called the police.

The police are looking to speak to any potential witnesses or anyone that can shed some light on exactly what happened here. One witness mentioned a delivery van parked in the area. The police would particularly like to talk to the owner or driver of this van, if only to rule out that they were involved in the incident.