Rotterdam neighborhood rocked by second explosion in 24 hours

An explosive went off in an apartment building in Rotterdam-Crooswijk at 4:45 a.m. on Tuesday. Just about 24 hours earlier, another explosive damaged another apartment building a few hundred meters away.

Tuesday’s explosion happened at the entrance of an apartment building at the intersection of Crooswijkseweg and Koepelstraat. The blast damaged the entrance door and several windows of the building, as well as a parked car, according to Rijnmond. No one got hurt.

The explosion startled one resident’s dog into a panic, she told Rijnmond. “I find it really scary. What do you achieve with it? Nothing.”

“It took quite a long time, much longer than fireworks,” another building resident told the local broadcaster. “I saw smoke. Then I went outside and saw the damage to the porch. Then the police came.”

Earlier on Tuesday morning, at around 3:00 a.m., another explosive went off on Van Speykstraat in Rotterdam-West. Here, too, an explosive was detonated at the entrance of an apartment building. The blast damaged the building’s entrance and windows and several parked cars.

According to Rijnmond, the three attacks on Monday and Tuesday bring the total number of explosions targeting Rotterdam homes this year to at least 50. The national police announced a special team to investigate these attacks earlier this month.