Kidnapped man from Rotterdam reports himself to the police
Police announced on Saturday that a 71-year-old man from Rotterdam who was kidnapped at the end of January was found safe earlier that morning. While police officers responded to a report of a vehicle in the water on Rhoonse Baan in Rotterdam at about 8:30 a.m., the missing person walked right up them on the street.
He was taken to an area hospital for monitoring, though he seemed in good physical condition after an initial examination on the street.
The situation unfolded while the two officers were assisting with the emergency. The man ran towards the officers on the cycle path between the roundabout at Nijverheidsweg and the Rijsdijk viaduct over the Rhoonse Baan. He told his story when he approached them.
”From this conversation it became clear that it concerned the previously kidnapped Rotterdammer. Officers checked his identity and it turned out to indeed be the 71-year-old Rotterdam resident” who was abducted, police said in a statement.
Police do not yet know whether the man escaped, if he was rescued, or if his captors released him. The kidnapping remains under investigation.
The man was on his way home from a mosque, a walk of a few hundred meters, when he was pulled into a black van with orange stripes by two perpetrators at 7:38 p.m. A third person was behind the wheel when it happened on the Zoutziederstraat in Rotterdam on January 25, witnesses told police soon after.
A 45-year-old Zwolle man was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the abduction. He was remanded into custody. Prosecutors could move to extend his initial.detention by up to 90 days during a hearing next week.
A reward of 20,000 euros was announced by on Friday for any information leading to the man’s whereabouts. As a result, police received clues about the getaway car, but no useful information about where the man was at the time.
In the week leading up to the announcement, police raided a warehouse in Nieuwe-Tonge and a home in Rotterdam-Zuid. The home was raided on February 2, the same date the Zwolle suspect was ordered to remain in jail at an initial hearing.
