Small, but intense local thunderstorms with hail and strong winds caused nuisance and damage in various places in the Netherlands on Tuesday evening.
Around Leerdam, cars, houses and gardens were damaged by rain and hail, RTV Utrecht reports. A number of trees toppled over across roads and had to be removed by the fire brigade. In Oudewater a scouting club lost their tents thanks to the strong winds. No one was injured.
Three cars went up in flames in Gouda during the early hours of Tuesday morning. That brings the number of car fires in the city up to 23 since May 3rd. The police suspect arson in all cases.
At around 00:25 a.m., the first car caught fire on Boelhouwerstraat in Oosterwei, near the crossing with Van Roijenstraat, AD reports. Firefighters were quickly at the scene, but the car burned out completely. The second car fire happened a short time later on Veenenburg in Bloemendaal. The third car fire on Oostmolenpad was reported at around 5:00 a.m.
A car went up in flames on Plaswijckweg in Gouda during the early hours of Friday morning. The Citroen was destroyed by the fire. This is the 19th car fire in the city since May 3rd.
The fire brigade responded to the scene at around 1:45 a.m., according to newspaper AD. Firefighters quickly extinguished the fire, but the car could not be saved.
In the past month, a total of 19 cars went up in flames in various areas across Gouda. The police suspect arson in every one of these fires.
Last week, U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands, Pete Hoekstra, was named an honorary cheese Weighmaster by Gouda Mayor Mirjam Salet at the annual opening of the city's historic cheese market. "I’ll continue to promote the cheese to our American friends," he reportedly said.
A 50-year-old former teacher at a Rotterdam school was arrested on Monday on suspicion of abusing a young girl and possessing child pornography, the Public Prosecutor announced on Friday.
Charges were pressed against the man late last month. Based on this, his home in Gouda was search. "After a short scan" child pornography was found on his data carriers, the Prosecutor said. The man taught the girl "in the past".
Police officers in Gouda encountered an ungrateful passenger on Monday night. The officers loaded a stray dog out of the rain and into their car, only to be chased out of the car by that same dog.
"Last night we helped with catching a stray dog. When the boxer was hot and dry in the car, he showed his teeth and decided that the officers were no longer welcome", the Gouda police said on Twitter.
The officers had to wait outside, in the rain, for the animal ambulance to arrive.
A 46-year-old woman from Gouda was sentenced to institutionalized psychiatric treatment for stalking National Police Chief Erik Akerboom and his wife. The court in The Hague considered it proven that the woman sent the couple over 2,500 threatening emails. They sometimes received 50 per day, NOS reports.
In one email she wrote: "Do not come near me in my neighborhood Erik, because I will really break you". Another read: "No, I will not give you an extra day. Can I kill you or just wait like your predecessor?"
Dutch municipalities, the police and security services are currently actively monitoring at least 160 radicalized Muslims. Amsterdam accounts for the biggest share of that number, with 59 radicalized people currently under the municipality's eye, the Volkskrant reports.
There will be no trains running between Utrecht and Rotterdam Centraal, and between Utrecht and The Hague this week. This line is closed until August 6th due to maintenance on the track around Gouda, NOS reports.
Around 75 percent of the railway around Gouda will be renewed, which includes replacing points, rails, sleepers and rail gravel. This is only possible if train traffic is completely halted. NS and ProRail chose this week for this task, as it is summer holidays and many people are away on vacation.
In the first six months of 2018 traffic congestion on Dutch roads increased by approximately 20 percent compared to the same period last year, the ANWB announced. In the months of March April and May there were a lot more traffic jams and rush hour records were broken time and again, RTL Nieuws reports.
The increased traffic was particularly noticeable at the biggest bottlenecks on the Dutch road network, especially on the A4 from Amsterdam to Rotterdam, the A20 from Hoek van Holland to Gouda, and the A27 from Utrecht to Breda.
A 16-year-old boy was seriously injured in Gouda on Friday morning when he jumped off a roof while running from the police, Omroep West reports.
The boy was one of six teenagers sitting on a roof on Kleiweg and making noise. Four of them left a youth institution without permission. When the police wanted to take them back, one of them jumped off the roof.
"He ran a bit over the roof and jumped - even before the cops could catch up to him - from the four floor building", a spokesperson for the police said to the broadcaster.
Two people were killed when a small sports plane crashed in a polder in Krimpenerwaard on Tuesday morning. The accident happened around 11:30 a.m. southwest of the town Stolwijk, near Gouda, NOS reports.
The plane involved is a Cessna with registration code PH-SBM, according to the broadcaster. It took off from Rotterdam The Hague Airport around 15 minutes before the crash. The two victims were the only people in the plane.
Eyewitnesses told NOS that the plane got into trouble when making a loop.
A container ship crashed into a railway bridge in Gouda on Sunday. The accident halted train traffic between Gouda and Boskoop on Sunday, and fewer trains will run on this route on Monday, NS reports. The rail company hopes that train traffic will return to normal by 6:30 p.m.
The bridge shifted on its foundation due to the accident, and the safety net is visibly torn. "The bridge is damaged to such an extent that specialized technicians have to take measurements", ProRail said on Sunday.
Anti-Islam movement Pegida is planing to roast pigs on the spit in front of five mosques during Ramadan. The action is planned for mosques in Arnhem, Gouda, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague, during the evening prayer, AD reports.
A few hundred train passengers spent over five hours stuck on a train between Woerden and Gouda on Wednesday. The train came to a stop when the overhead line suddenly broke, part of it landing on the front of the train. The train lost power, and the passengers were left stranded with nothing to eat or drink, NU.nl reports.
An autopsy was scheduled to determine what killed a 39-year-old Den Haag man who appeared to be repeatedly punched when police tried to apprehend him, prosecutors said Friday evening. Paul Selier, a father of two children living in The Hague, was identified in media reports as the victim.
Kalid T. (32), a councilor of the PvdA party in Gouda and the former principal of primary school An Noer in Alphen aan den Rijn was remanded into custody on allegations of the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl. He was arrested last September and has been in police custody since.
The decision was taken last Tuesday Jan. 10 by the Court of Den Haag during the pre-trial hearing. The accused denies abusing the girl, according to his lawyer Shirley Splinter's statement made during the hearing.
Khalid T., a former PvdA city councilor in Gouda, is suspected of having sex with a 13-year-old girl in a hotel room. The Public Prosecutor is charging him with child sex abuse and removing a child from her parental authority, Omroep West reports.
According to the Public Prosecutor, 32-year-old man had oral sex with the girl and penetrated her.
Khalid T. was also the director of primary school An Noer in Alphen aan den Rijn. The girl was not a student at the school, according to the broadcaster.
There were no major incidents during New Year's celebrations across the Netherlands, according to initial reports from regional emergency services. So far only Rotterdam reports a sharp increase in the number of incidents.
The Public Prosecutor released two of four men who were arrested in Rotterdam on terrorism suspicions from custody. The other two men will be arraigned on Thursday, NU.nl reports.
Investigation into a 30-year-old man from Delft and a 23-year-old from Gouda did not reveal any indications of involvement in terrorism, the Prosecutor said. They were released from custody on Wednesday, but remain suspects.
The police arrested four men in Rotterdam on Sunday evening on suspicion of involvement in terrorism, the Public Prosecutor said in a statement on Tuesday. The suspects are three Dutch men and one Swedish man.
A foreign police service informed the Dutch authorities about the 29-year-old Swede's possible involvement in terrorism. He arrived in the Netherlands on a plane from Stockholm on Sunday afternoon. The police kept an eye on him, and arrested him with the three Dutch men early in the evening.
Due to heavy snowfall expected across the Netherlands this afternoon, many schools decided to give their students the day off on Monday. These include the 23 secondary schools under the ZAAM foundation in Amsterdam and its surrounds, the 4e Gymnasium in Amsterdam, the Amadeus Lyceum in Vleuten, the Coornhert Gymnasiam in Gouda, and the Wellant College in Alphen aan den Rijn, NU.nl reports.
"An email has just been sent from the board that at 1:00 p.m. te doors will close in all schools of ZAAM", an employee of the Amsterdam-Zuid school community said to NU.nl.
Road users should expect a very busy rush hour on Monday morning. No train traffic is possible on one of the busiest routes in the country, due to maintenance work that is taking longer than expected. And rain and wind will only add to the problems.
The Sinterklaas parade in Gouda this year will include a gluten-free Zwarte Piet. This Piet will hand out gluten-free sweets to children with gluten intolerance. A green flag with the gluten-free logo will be strapped to his back so that he is easy to recognize, AD reports.
