Firefighters gather in Eden, on March 30, 2024. Heavily armed police have cordoned off part of a Dutch town and say that multiple people are being held hostage in a building there.
| Photo Credit: AP

Several people have been taken hostage in a town in central Netherlands on March 30, according to police, with houses evacuated and the town centre closed down.

Police said there was currently no reason to suspect a “terrorist motive” for the incident in Ede.

“A hostage situation involving several people is underway in a building in the centre” of the town of Ede, police said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

It is not known how many people are being held but local media have reported around four or five people are involved.

Police said they had cleared a cordon around a cafe, with residents of around 150 houses being brought to safety.

The local municipality said on its website that the town centre had been closed off and that riot police and explosives experts were at the scene.

Authorities called on residents to avoid the town centre and train traffic was being diverted.

“We see there are many questions about the motive. At this time there is no indication of a terrorist motive,” police said.

The Netherlands has seen a series of terror attacks and plots but not on the scale of other European countries, such as France or Britain.

In 2019, the country was stunned by a shooting spree on a tram in the city of Utrecht that claimed four lives.

A Turkish-born man identified as Gokmen Tanis later admitted a terror motive for the rampage that virtually shut down the country’s fourth biggest city.

Also in 2019, Dutch police charged two suspected jihadists with planning a terror attack using suicide bombs and car bombs. Authorities said an attack was planned that year.

A young Afghan man identified only as “Jawed S.” stabbed two American tourists at Amsterdam Central Station in 2018, later telling judges he wanted “to protect the Prophet Mohammed.”

The assault came a day after far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders announced he was cancelling a plan to stage a cartoon competition to caricature the Prophet Mohammed.

At the time Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid urged Muslims to attack Dutch troops after Wilders’ “hostile act by this country (the Netherlands) against all Muslims.”

In the most serious incident involving a terror attack, outspoken Dutch anti-Islam film director Theo van Gogh was shot and stabbed to death in 2004 in Amsterdam by a man with ties to a Dutch Islamist terror network.

A man is arrested by members of the DSI special police forces after several people were taken hostages in a cafe in Ede, Netherlands, on March 30, 2024. Everyone being held hostage in a town in central Netherlands is now free and a suspect is in custody, Dutch police said on March 30, 2024, after an ordeal that lasted several hours.
| Photo Credit: AFP

A hostage drama in the Netherlands that lasted several hours on Saturday ended without bloodshed as all hostages were freed and police took the suspect into custody.

Authorities have said there was no reason to suspect a “terrorist motive” for the ordeal, which took place at a night spot popular with young people in the town of Ede.

“The last hostage has just been released. One person has been arrested. We cannot share more information at this time,” announced police on X, formerly Twitter.

Several local media reported that a “confused” man had burst into the cafe in the early hours of Saturday morning and made threats, holding four people hostage.

The incident sparked a major deployment including riot police and explosives experts.

Police cleared the centre of the town and evacuated the residents of some 150 buildings near the cafe.

An initial group of three people were released, with pictures from public broadcaster NOS showing them exiting the building with their hands in the air.

The fourth hostage was freed shortly afterwards, with the suspected hostage-taker then arrested.

NOS images showed a man kneeling on the ground with his hands behind his back, as officers restrained him with handcuffs.

“A terrible situation for all these people. My concern and thoughts go out to them and their loved ones. I hope that the situation is now resolved quickly and safely,” said Ede mayor Rene Verhulst.

Last year, a 27-year-old man armed with two guns held several people hostage at an Apple store in Amsterdam, sparking a tense five-hour ordeal.

That stand-off ended when the suspect was hit by a police car as he chased his last hostage who made a desperate break for freedom and ran out of the store.

He later died in hospital from his injuries.

The Netherlands has seen a series of terror attacks and plots but not on the scale of other European countries, such as France or Britain.

In 2019, the country was stunned by a shooting spree on a tram in the city of Utrecht that claimed four lives.

In the most serious incident involving a terror attack, outspoken Dutch anti-Islam film director Theo van Gogh was shot and stabbed to death in 2004 in Amsterdam by a man with ties to a Dutch Islamist terror network.