Passengers were ordered out of Zwolle railway station in three separate incidents in two hours’ time on Sunday afternoon.
ZWOLLE–Heavily-armed police in the Netherlands stormed onto a stopped passenger train to capture two men sitting in the train car. It was one of three separate incidents in two hours taking place at or near the Zwolle train station, which led to the arrests of five people in total.
In the first incident, a police arrest squad quietly approached an Arriva train from multiple directions around 2:30pm Sunday.
Passengers were ordered off the train in the railyard. After dragging their luggage to a nearby area they were told to keep their hands on their heads, witnesses said to local media.
Police arrested and led two suspects away from the scene, both of whom appeared to be blindfolded. Another person led off the train appeared to only have his hoodie over his forehead in a video shot at the scene and published online.
Rumours spread on social media that the incident was related to a bomb threat. Police said later the two men who were arrested allegedly had made “suspect remarks” about the possible presence of an explosive device in the train.
A fellow passenger had heard one of the men make a remark of this nature at the railway station in Emmen and called the police from the train.
It is not known why they used a specialist tactical team in the arrest, and why the train was stopped outside the station.
Two more suspects were arrested a short while later, when the station itself was evacuated for the second time that day. Police said this was not believed to be connected to the first incident.
A spokesperson told newspaper De Telegraaf that the arrest was for “smoking in a train toilet.” Because of the police presence in the first incident, this case resulted in the suspects’ arrest as opposed to just a warning.
A man with an axe prompted police to briefly evacuate the station again. The man was detained by authorities, police said at 4:25pm.
“As far as we know now, these are three incidents that have nothing to do with each other,” police said on Twitter.
There were train cancellations and delays from 2:20pm to and from the Zwolle station. NS reported that the national railway was expected to run its normal schedule by 5:00pm on Sunday.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/84269-possible-bomb-threat-leads-to-train-arrests-in-zwolle
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