Gelderland

A cheerful, smiling blond woman named Dee walked out of coffeeshop Nogal Wiedes in Amsterdam Centrum having purchased a gram of hash just before the government's new emergency measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic took effect. The policy was introduced at about 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, and included a mandate that all restaurants, bars, cafes, fitness centers, saunas, sex clubs, and coffeeshops close from 6 p.m. on Sunday through April 6.

Authorities say a police officer who was arrested over his involvement in an off-duty “violent incident” has been suspended. “Drugs were found during the investigation,” police note, and the criminal case is ongoing.

“In addition to the criminal investigation, a disciplinary investigation has also been started,” authorities confirm. “The employee has since been suspended, but he has no access to police buildings and systems during the investigations.”

Scores of emergency personnel raced to the town hall in Nijkerk after a driver smashed his pick-up truck through the exterior glass and into the lobby. Video shot at the scene showed the truck then reverse out of the building, before then driving back in again.

The driver was injured during the Friday morning incident and transported to an area hospital. He was being kept in police custody as the circumstances around the incident were being investigated, authorities said.

People from across the Netherlands and several places in Belgium reported seeing a very bright flash of light at around 00:40 a.m. on Tuesday. The flash was caused by a meteor moving through the atmosphere from an easterly direction, according to NOS.

A 15-year-old boy was found dead at the company where he worked in the Gelderland town of Dodewaard on Wednesday. Emergency services were deployed to the business on the Edisonring, but attempts to resuscitate the boy was to no avail. He died at the scene, the police said on Twitter.

The boy's body was discovered by colleagues just before 4:00 p.m., according to newspaper AD.

A 35-year-old woman was found dead in a home in Eerbeek, Gelderland early Friday night. The following morning officers arrested a 30-year-old man in connection with the case.

“The detectives are investigating his relationship with the deceased woman, and his possible role in her death,” police said.

Dispatchers sent a trauma team by helicopter to the neighborhood along with paramedics in an ambulance. The teams were sent to the scene after 2:10 a.m.

Last year, nearly 71 thousand new homes were built and delivered in the Netherlands, over 6 percent more than in 2018 and the biggest increase in a decade, Statistics Netherlands reported on Wednesday. The total housing stock in the Netherlands grew by 0.9 percent last year.

A possible explosive was found at a cafe on Voorstraat in Zwolle on Tuesday morning. The area around the cafe was cordoned off while explosive removal experts from the Ministry of Defense investigated and removed the device, the Gelderland police said on Twitter.

According to newspaper De Stentor, the explosive involved was a hand grenade and it was found tied to the door of cafe Bruut. Emergency services responded to the scene at around 8:20 a.m.

Two boys arrested on suspicion of setting a fatal fire in the entryway of an Arnhem apartment building were released from pre-trial custody by a magistrate in Gelderland. The magistrate said that while there was sufficient evidence linking the 12 and 13 year old to the fire, their "personal circumstances" must also be taken into account.

An Ede mortuary expressed anger and confusion on social media after a funeral procession it organized on New Year's Eve was pelted with exploding fireworks. The Gelderland city faced a string of disturbing New Year's incidents against aid workers, which the city's mayor, René Verhulst, said was "terrible and sickening."

The procession had just left the funeral home and was headed towards the cemetery with the funeral director walking in front of the hearse. It was right around noon when "young people shot fireworks at him and the hearse," the Van de Weerd mortuary said.

At least one person was killed, and 19 others were injured when dozens of cars rammed into each other on the A32 highway near Akkrum, Friesland. As dense fog reduced visibility in parts of the country to just five meters, Dutch infrastructure agency Rijkswaterstaat called on drivers to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary.

The trouble at Akkrum started just after 6:30 p.m. at marker 57.5. Firefighters, paramedics and police were all quickly dispatched to the scene. A trauma team was sent in a helicopter about 20 minutes later to assist the first responders.