Ongoing About ten Amsterdam homes evacuated over suspicious package
About ten homes on the Schillingdijk in De Aker, in Amsterdam's Nieuw-West district, were evacuated on Monday evening while the defence bomb disposal service checks a suspicious package.
A possible explosive was found in the front garden of a home on the Schillingdijk in De Aker, Amsterdam, on Monday evening, a police spokesperson said. About ten homes were evacuated as a precaution, and a large part of the street was cordoned off.
The Explosieven Opruimingsdienst Defensie (EOD) is examining the package to establish whether it is a real explosive.
The Team Explosieven Verkenning, an explosives reconnaissance team, was also sent to assess the package. The police spokesperson said how the explosive came to be there still has to be investigated.
The report of the suspicious package came in at around 20:30. Besides the police, the fire brigade's Quick Response Team (QRT), a special unit used in high-risk operations, was called out.
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EOD (Explosieven Opruimingsdienst Defensie)
The Explosive Ordnance Disposal service of the Dutch Ministry of Defence is the military unit that finds, assesses and safely removes or destroys explosives. Its specialists handle wartime munitions such as unexploded bombs and grenades, as well as suspicious packages and other possible explosive devices. When police or local authorities find a suspected explosive, the EOD decides whether the object is actually dangerous and how it should be dealt with.