"Bomb" that forced evacuation of Alkmaar courthouse was a pedal car

No explosives were found after a bomb threat shut down the courthouse in Alkmaar on Wednesday morning. The person who made the threat while holding a large box moments after a hearing in the building was taken into custody. The incendiary device he claimed was in the box turned out to be a children's pedal car.

The 39-year-old suspect from Heerhugowaard was taken into custody, according to NH Nieuws. The nature of the court hearing was not made public, and any motive for allegedly making the threat was not immediately clear.

Police said the man was screened by security at the courthouse before he entered. He was carrying the large box, which could not fit in the device that screens parcels before people can bring them inside. Instead, the gift wrapped box was opened, unpacked and manually searched by security who found the pedal car and cleared it.

Once the man's hearing was over, he left the box in the courtroom and claimed a bomb was inside. Even though the parcel was screened, police took the threats seriously. "Then all alarm bells went off for us. At that time there was sufficient reason to evacuate the building as a precaution," a representative of the court told the broadcaster.

The building was evacuated, with about 150 people offered shelter at a school canteen down the street. Five detainees in the courthouse's jail were transported to an area police station. The package and car inside were re-examined, and cleared of any threat. The building was reopened at about 11:30 a.m.