Video: Explosives in car on Utrecht street; Apartment bulidings evacuated
An 18-story apartment building on Beneluxlaan in Utrecht was evacuated on Tuesday evening due to a car containing explosives parked in front of it. A second apartment building was partially evacuated. Around 160 people were forced to leave their apartments for hours while the police secured the explosive materials.
A resident of the evacuated apartment building told RTV Utrecht that she heard sirens around 8:00 p.m. She went to the balcony to investigate and saw a black car driving on the bike path, pursued by a police car. “Then we thought: this is bad.” She watched the situation from the balcony for a while until there was a knock at the door. “Then a police officer was there and told us we had to leave the building due to the security situation.”
The police cleared the buildings and cordoned off the area. The fire brigade also responded to the scene, and a police helicopter circled the neighborhood for a while. The Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) investigated and eventually removed the explosives.
It remains unclear what type of explosives were involved. Photos from the scene show white jerrycans with red caps in the trunk of the black car. A similar-looking jerrycan was also found in the parking lot at Sportpark Galecop in Nieuwegein. It is unclear whether the two are related.
Evacuated residents were initially accommodated at the Van der Valk Hotel on Winthontlaan. One told RTV Utrecht that they were later informed that sleeping accommodations, breakfast, and toothbrushes had been arranged at the Hoograven Sports Hall.
While they were on a bus heading to the sports hall, the news came in that the EOD had safely removed the explosives. The bus took them home. That was around 2:30 a.m.
