Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Top stories
  • Health
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Weird
  • 1-1-2
Image
Fire at a transmission tower on Sluiskade in Almere, 13 April 2020
Fire at a transmission tower on Sluiskade in Almere, 13 April 2020 - Credit: Politie / Opsporing Verzocht
Crime
arson
fire
5G
5G arson
conspiracy theory
police
Ministry of Justice and Security
extra security
Ferdinand Grapperhaus
C2000
NOVEC
Anja Spronk
Ed Boerema
Cellmex
Friday, 29 May 2020 - 09:57
Share this:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • reddit

5G arson: Extra security at transmission masts after 29 fires

Radio mast companies and telecom providers in the Netherlands are hiring extra security to guard against arsonists targeting their transmission masts. After two cell towers in Roermond and Roosendaal were set alight this week, the total number of transmission mast arson incidents in the country stands at 29. So far only three suspects have been arrested for two of the fires.

Earlier this week, Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security said that all C2000 masts, the masts used by the emergency services to communicate, will get extra security in the coming period, AD reports.

There will also be extra surveillance at "intersections" where several transmission towers are connected, Anja Spronk of NOVEC, a company with about 850 transmission towers, said to the newspaper.

The government, telecom companies, and mast operators are discussing what else can be done. "You can think of extra locks and better hinges and locks, but arson is difficult to prevent," Ed Boerema of Cellnex, which owns a proportion of the masts in the Netherlands, said to the newspaper. "We experimented with cameras in the past, but that was not a success. They were vandalized and there were many false reports."

There are tens of thousands of antennas in the Netherlands, not only on masts, but also on the roofs of parking garages and other buildings.

The authorities believe the arson incidents are connected to conspiracy theories about the 5G network. A popular conspiracy theory online suggests that 5G weakens people's immune systems and leave them vulnerable to diseases and viruses, like the current coronavirus pandemic. There is no scientific evidence for this claim.

Follow us:

Latest stories

  • Suspects acquitted in suspicious death of homeless Polish man in Amsterdam
  • Next year’s Grease revival will be dedicated to Olivia Newton-John
  • Feyenoord left disappointed after 0-0 draw against Heerenveen in Rotterdam
  • Glass falls from Zandvoort gondola, injuring women; Four men held
  • Fire chief suggests national wildfire control supervisor
  • A few hundred people may be sleeping outside in Ter Apel asylum reception center

Top stories

  • Netherlands sees first official heat wave in two years, municipalities unprepared
  • Body found in water in Venlo, police investigate cause of death
  • 'Comfort women' provided the Royal House with millions: FTM
  • Search continues for swimmer missing at Overveen
  • Salman Rushdie stabbing "horrific" says Dutch justice minister
  • American man imprisoned for 7 years for stabbing cops during Covid curfew check

© 2012-2022, NL Times, All rights reserved.

Footer menu

  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Partner content