Hand grenades found on Utrecht street; Police station evacuated

Three different hand grenades were found along the IJsselsteinlaan in Utrecht on Wednesday afternoon. The discovery prompted the evacuation of the Hoograven neighborhood and a nearby police station.

The two men who said they found the grenades were taken into custody.

Both men said they spotted packages on the street and decided to throw them away. At least two were dumped in an underground garbage container, but for unknown reasons the men brought one package to the police station.

Police said they discovered the first grenade at about 1:30 p.m. and called in a specialist explosives team to assist in dealing with the package. About 15 minutes later, the area around the garbage container on IJsselsteinlaan was cleared, and bomb experts searched each garbage bag individually until they found the other grenades.

Both men were officially detained before 3 p.m., police added. The grenade was removed from the police station at about 4:15 p.m., and the wider area was reopened by 6:45 p.m., after the other two hand grenades were found.