An explosion damaged a coronavirus test center in a small Dutch town early Wednesday in what police suspect was a deliberate attack.
Police in the province of North Holland say the device arrived near the test center in Bovenkarspel just before 07:00 – about 50 km north of the capital, Amsterdam.
The blast shattered five windows, but no one was injured, police said. The national broadcaster NOS reported that a security guard was in the center at the time of the explosion, but he was not harmed.
Officials cordoned off the area around the test center and an explosives team was sent to the site to investigate the incident. Pieces of metal from the explosive device were found outside the front of the test center.
North Holland police spokesman Menno Hartenberg told Reuters the metal device measured about 10 by 10 centimeters (4 by 4 inches).
He said the device clearly did not accidentally get there and that he “should have been placed there.”
“We do not yet know exactly what exploded. The explosives experts must first investigate,” Hartenberg said. “What we are saying is that something like this is not just happening by accident, it needs to be laid.”
The spokesman said it was not clear at this time who was responsible for the blast or what their motive was.
The national elections will be held in the Netherlands on March 17 – seen by many as a referendum on the government’s handling of the pandemic, reports Reuters.
Healthcare authorities in the Netherlands have faced increasing anger in recent weeks, insofar as the country’s national institute for health now has to be accompanied by security personnel.
In January, another test center was burnt down in the fishing village of Urk – located in the province of Flevoland – during several days of riots, which began after the government set a night clock between 21:00 and 04:30 am.
Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands and Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport Hugo de Jonge described the planting of the explosive device in a Twitter message as “insane”.
“For more than a year we have been relying on the people on the front lines. And then this. Insane. Let’s stay behind the people who are working hard to get us out of this crisis,” he said on Monday.
Although the circumstances of the explosion are still unknown, Mayor Ronald Wortelboer of the Cities Broec (which includes the city of Bovenkarspel) told the local news website AD.nl that resistance to coronavirus restrictions could be the motivation.
“I understand that there are people who are frustrated by the corona situation and all the measures,” he said. “It is very good that you can sometimes wholeheartedly disagree with each other in our society, but with that comes the duty to express it in a decent way.”
