Utrecht

The Utrecht police arrested three teenagers on suspicion of mugging school children in Vleuten and Leidsche Rijn. Cycling pupils were mugged multiple times on their way home from school in January. The muggers stole money and belongings, the Telegraaf reports.

Investigation led the police to three boys aged 13, 14 and 16 from Utrecht. They are linked to one of four muggings. Their involvement in the other three crimes is still under investigation. 

It was a record-setting day in The Netherlands on Tuesday, but in a particularly good way. Traffic jams stuffed up 2,287 kilometers of Dutch roadways, what traveler's association ANWB called a new record.

The jams were nearly double that which was recorded on November 1, the worst date of 2018.

Three persons were arrested after a demonstration by anti-Islam movement Pegida in the Utrecht district of Zuilen on Wednesday evening. Towards the end of the demonstration, the situation became unsettled and there were various vandalism incidents. The detainees were counter-protesters, RTV Utrecht reports.

A handful of Pegida supporters gathered at the Abi Bakr Issidik mosque around 7:00 p.m., where they watched a film about Islam in a cordoned off area. A group of opponents gathered outside the fences.

The four large Dutch cities - Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague - will have the opportunity to present their wish lists in the area of mobility and housing during a special meeting with the government next week. This meeting will happen with Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Ministers Kasja Ollongren of Home Affairs and Cora van Nieuwenhuizen of Infrastructure in Utrecht on Wednesday, sources in The Hague confirmed to AD after reports in NRC.

A 34-year-old man from Utrecht died early on Friday morning after he got stuck between the fence and the roof of a bicycle shed. What the man was doing there is not yet clear. But the police concluded that his death was an accident, RTL Nieuws reports.

At around 3:00 a.m. a resident of an apartment building on Willem Schuylenburglaan heard someone shouting for help, but could not figure out where it came from. The police were called and officers found the victim in the bike shed. 

Police officers and firefighters were attacked in Groningen and Utrecht over the weekend where young people on the street wreaked havoc with fireworks, authorities said. Fifteen people were arrest in connection with multiple incidents in the Paddepoel district of the city, AD reported.

It started when the fire department arrived in the district to put out a blaze, and had to respond again just an hour later when fire ignited again. On the second visit, heavy fireworks were lobbed at the firefighters causing police to respond.

A Dutch pre-teen is winning high praise around the Netherlands for racing around the country to play the piano in a fundraising effort. Bas Schipper set a record by playing all the pianos located at 16 different train stations in 18 hours and 10 minutes, breaking the previous record set by Ernesto Dennis by 75 minutes.

In doing so, he managed to raise €61,835 for diabetes research, as of Monday afternoon. The total far exceeded the goal the boy set.

Residents of the Netherlands' four largest cities can expect their parking permits to put a real dent in their budget next year. Amsterdam is the only one of the four cities not implementing a major price increase for next year, though the Dutch capital is still most expensive when it comes to parking costs, according to a survey by association Eigen Huis among 53 Dutch municipalities, RTL Nieuws reports.

Primary schools in large cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague and the municipalities around them are increasingly using Pieten with soot marks on their faces in the Sinterklaas celebration, rather than the traditional blackface Zwarte Piet, according to a survey of over 580 schools by DUO Education Research & Advice, NU.nl reports.

The police arrested 12 people in the Netherlands for involvement in the production and export of drugs to Scandinavia. A 13th suspect was arrested in Peer, Belgium. The suspects are 12 men and a woman between the ages of 32 and 16 years. They were arrested on Monday, but the police only announced the arrests on Thursday.

The police searched buildings in Utrecht, Vleuten, Woerden, Maarssen, Houten, Almere, Waardenburg, Lopikerkapel and Aalsmeer. 

The Public Prosecutor made a deal with a second suspect in one of the multiple gangland assassinations in Amsterdam and Utrecht to turn key witness. Tony de G., a 34-year-old suspect in the murder of Amsterdam criminal Jair Wessels, made statements against people involved in the criminal underworld, Het Parool reports.