KNRM

The bodies of two men were found in sunken fishing cutter Lummetje in the North Sea early on Sunday afternoon. While official identification is still in progress, the victims are almost certainly 27-year-old Hendrik-Jan de Vries and 41-year-old Jochem Foppen, who disappeared with the Lummetje on Thursday. "It is good for the families that the uncertainty has come to an end", Mayor Ineke Bakker of Urk said in a statement, De Gelderlander reports.

The Netherlands Coastguard launched a massive search for a fishing boat from Urk on the North Sea near Texel on Thursday morning. The Zr.Ms. Makkum, a naval ship designed to search for sea mines, searched the area around where the boat disappeared with its sonar equipment and most likely located it, the Coastguard said. But due to the bad weather conditions, divers can not yet be sent in to confirm. There were two people on board the boat when it disappeared.

The heat wave in the Netherlands last week resulted in a sharp increase in the number of calls to Dutch water rescue society KNRM. Volunteers were deployed on 160 calls for rescue operations or assistance last week, more than triple what is usual, KNRM spokesperson Kees Brinkman said to NOS.

Dozens of volunteers, rescuers, and investigators from several organizations joined together on Friday morning trying to track down Anja Schaap. The 33-year-old redheaded-woman from Katwijk was last seen at about 1 a.m. on May 29 when she left a cafe in the town’s center.

Rescue organization KNRM performed a rather odd rescue off the coast of Ameland on Tuesday afternoon. The rescue workers had to rescue a cow from the Wadden Sea. "Not an everyday job for the KNRM", the organization said on its website. 

The cow was in the water near Ballumerbocht. It took the KNRM two lifeboats and over an hour to get the cow out of the water. Using one of the lifeboats, KNRM rescuers finally managed to pull the cow to the Wadden Sea dyke on Ameland, where she was pulled from the sea with a crane and placed on a cattle wagon.

An hours long search for a missing boy on the IJsselmeer had a happy ending on Monday night. The 13-year-old from Urk was found alive and well on Houtribdijk near IJsselmeer, the Coast Guard said on Twitter.

The boy took a sloop onto the IJsselmeer from Urk early on Monday evening, according to NU.nl. When he did not return home, a large search involving a helicopter and multiple lifeboats from rescue organization KNRM was launched. The coast guard, a few fishing cutters, the fire brigade and the police also helped in the search. 

A large fire destroyed restaurant De Klok in the Noord-Holland village of Egmond aan Zee on Thursday afternoon. The fire department had to call in the help of rescue organization KNRM to supply additional extinguishing water from the sea, NU.nl reports.

Firefighters managed to prevent the fire spreading to other buildings. The fire department eventually decided to demolish the building, to make it easier to get to and extinguish the fire.

The fire caused a lot of smoke. An NL Alert was issued warning local residents to keep their windows and doors closed.

A 9-year-old boy lost his hand in an accident on the Markermeer on Monday afternoon. The boy was swimming on the lake with friends, using a sailboat as a dive board. When the boy jumped, his hand got stuck somewhere on the boat and tore off, RTL Nieuws reports.

Exactly what went wrong is not yet clear. According to a spokesperson for rescue organization KNRM, eyewitnesses say the boy's hand got stuck on the rigging - a thick rope or steel wire that keeps the mast attached to the ship. The sailboat was about 15 kilometers from Enkuizen at the time.

Three members of the Rescue Brigade were rescued themselves on Wednesday night when their boat capsized off the Zeeland coast. They called the Coast Guard themselves, who sent a helicopter to search for them.

Two men were arrested in Barendrecht on Tuesday in connection with the discovery of 1,200 kilograms of cocaine on a fishing boat in January. The men, a 41 year old from Winschoten and a 45 year old from Oldambt, are suspected of large-scale drug smuggling

The coast guard and rescue brigade KNRM called off the rescue operation searching for the pilot of a small airplane that crashed into the North Sea near Petten on Monday afternoon. The coastguard assumes that he won't be found alive. The search for his body continues