Zeeland

The number of millionaires in the Netherlands keeps growing. In 2016 the country counted 112 thousand millionaire households, the highest number since this annual study started in 2006, Statistics Netherlands reported on Tuesday.

A German sea mine was detonated off the coast of Zeeland on Thursday morning. The mine was discovered in July, during installation of a power cable for the Borssele wind farm, RTL Nieuws reports.

The explosive weighed nearly 700 kilograms. The navy branch of Defense's Explosives Ordnance Disposal service detonated the mine some 1,500 kilometers from the coast near Vlissingnen from navy mine-hunting vessel Zr. MS. Urk.

Shipping traffic was halted while the mine was detonated. 

After weeks of drought, parts of Zuid- and Midden-Nederland were hit by a rain storm on Thursday evening. One person was killed and one injured in Rotterdam when a tree fell on their car. In Gelderland thousands of homes were without power for a few hours. And Roosendaal was hit by a whirlwind, NOS and AD report.

Meteorological institute KNMI issued a code yellow warning for Noord-Brabant, Zuid-Holland, Zeeland, Gelderland and Utrecht on Thursday night. The service predicted thunderstorms, with gusts up to 70 kilometers per hour and hailstones up to 2 centimeters.

Several homes on Geertesplein in the Zeeland town of Kloetinge were evacuated on Thursday night after a man threatened one of the residents. The police searched the area for some time, but neither man nor weapon was found, Omroep Zeeland reports.

Multiple police units responded to Geertesplein at around 8:45 p.m. The homes on the top floors of an apartment complex were evacuated as a precaution, according to the broadcaster. 

A spokesperson for the police could not say anything about the nature of the threat to Omroep Zeeland.

The police reopened the missing person case for 35-year-old Herman Ploegstra, who disappeared from IJzendijke in Zeeland in October 2010. Partly as a result of new information, the cold case team decided to restart the investigation into his disappearance. They hope that new insights and techniques will bring more clarity about what happened to the man, RTL Nieuws reports.

Amsterdam has the most to offer of all municipalities in the Netherlands when it comes to culture. Maastricht and Leeuwarden are in second and third place respectively, according to the new Atlas for Municipalities presented in Leeuwarden on Wednesday afternoon, Het Parool reports.

Among the provinces, Groningen has the biggest cultural offering, followed by Zeeland and Noord-Holland. Flevoland is last on the ranking.

Two divers went missing the Grevelingenmeer in Scharendijke in Zeeland on Saturday evening. The body of one of the two divers was found on Sunday evening. The search for the second diver continues on Monday, NU.nl reports. 

A spokesperson for the police told the newspaper that the body of the missing diver was found late in the evening, shortly before the search was called off for the day. He could not say exactly where the body was found.

A man with a criminal record was shot and killed in the Noord-Brabant town of Schaijk on Thursday afternoon. Two boys on bicycles found the critically injured man in his car on Rijksweg around 3:00 p.m., he was shot shortly before that, the police said in a statement. Omroep Brabant identifies the victim as 51-year-old Henk Baum from Nistelrode. He died at the scene. 

A body was found on the beach in Zoutelande, Zeeland on Wednesday evening. The police believe they know who the victim is, but will not say anything about the victim's identity until the next of kin were informed, the Telegraaf reports.

The police does not connect the victim to any "known missing persons" cases, a spokesperson said to the newspaper. The body was found just before 7:00 p.m.

The Social Security Bank presented on Friday the list with the most popular baby names of last year. In 2017 the most popular name for boys has been Noah, for girls Emma. These names were chosen respectively 635 and 755 times.   

Here are the top 5 for the girls: Emma, Tess, Sophie, Julia and Anna. And the boy's top five: Noah, Sem, Lucas, Finn and Daan. There are differences in the trends with the baby names depending on the Dutch provinces. In Friesland the top of the list is occupied by Jess and Lieke, in Zeeland Jan and Johanna and Levi and Tess in Gelderland.

All five major storm surge gates in the Netherlands were closed in the wake of a storm that brought wind gusts as strong as 141 kilometers per hour. It is the first time all five flood defenses were simultaneously closed, the country's infrastructure agency, Rijkswaterstaat, announced on Wednesday.