Achi news desk-
The Hague, Netherlands: Several people were taken hostage in a central Dutch town on Saturday, according to police, with homes evacuated and the city center closed.
The police stated that at the moment there is no reason to suspect a “terrorist motive” for the incident in Ada.
“A hostage situation of several people is underway in a building in the center” of the town of Ada, police said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
It is not known how many people are arrested but local media reported the involvement of about four or five people.
The police said that they cleared a fence around a cafe, while the residents of about 150 houses were brought to a safe place.
The local municipality said on its website that the town center was closed and that police and explosives experts were present.
Authorities urged residents to avoid the city center and train traffic was diverted.
“We see that there are many questions about the motive. At this point there is no indication of a terrorist motive,” the police said.
The Netherlands has seen a series of terrorist attacks and plots but not on the scale of other European countries, such as France or Britain.
In 2019, the country was shocked by a shooting spree on a tram in the city of Utrecht that claimed four lives.
A Turkish-born man identified as a tennis umpire later pleaded guilty to a terrorist motive for the rampage that effectively shut down the country’s fourth-largest city.
Also in 2019, Dutch police charged two suspects with planning a terrorist attack using suicide bombs and car bombs. Authorities said an attack was planned that year.
In the most serious incident involving a terrorist attack, the outspoken anti-Islamic Dutch film director Theo Van Gogh was shot and stabbed to death in 2004 in Amsterdam by a man with ties to a Dutch terror network.
