Explosive attack on Nijverdal midwife practice with pregnant women inside
An explosion occurred at a midwife practice in Nijverdal on Tuesday evening. Consultations were taking place, and several pregnant women were in the waiting room when the explosive went off and shattered a tinted window. No injuries were reported.
The explosion happened at around 9:20 p.m. at the midwifery practice Zwanger & Zo on Kuperserf. The police cordoned off part of the practice for investigation. Witnesses reported seeing two perpetrators flee the scene. So far, no arrests have been made.
According to the local newspaper Tubantia, there were six people in the waiting room at the time - two pregnant women, their partners, and two grandmothers.
A nurse working in her office was less than a meter from the blast, and glass from the shattered window landed in her chair, a witness told the newspaper. She was unhurt but very shaken.
The motive for the attack is unclear, but midwives Frank Bekke and Maartje Welten consider it a “targeted attack” on their practice.
“Our assistant was behind the tinted window, but in that lit room, her silhouette was clearly visible from outside. The radio and the people chatting in the waiting room were also audible. That’s why I’m calling it a targeted attack. It’s absolutely scandalous. It terrified me,” midwife Bekke told Tubantia.
Midwife Welten was working inside when the explosion happened. “I’m angry, no, furious. Who would do something like this?” she asked the newspaper.
The midwives have no idea who could be behind the attack. They received no previous threats, Bekke said. “We’ll open again tomorrow, but with a board in front of a window. Because people are counting on us!”
Maternity care is under pressure in the Netherlands, largely due to staff shortages. Many practices have waiting lists. It is not clear whether this is also the case for Zwanger & Zo.
The attack happened on the same day that the Netherlands unveiled a National Monument protesting violence against women. The monument in Winschoten, consisting of two bronze statues of women on a plinth depicting thoughts and feelings about sexual violence, was unveiled on the International Day against Violence against Women and Girls. The women who modeled for the statues personally experienced sexual violence. And Groningen residents carved their thoughts into clay, which was later cast into bronze for the plinth.
