NRC HANDELSBLAD INTERNATIONAL: Dutch police on Thursday arrested seven people suspected of preparing a terrorist attack in Amsterdam, including a relative of one of the attackers who died in the 2004 bombings in Madrid.
Mayor Job Cohen said police were acting on an anonymous tip that warned an Ikea outlet or other stores in the southeast of the city might be targeted.
"It wasn't a regular bomb warning, but a warning of a planned action aimed at creating casualties in shops," Cohen said during a joint press conference with police commissioner Bernard Welten public prosecutor Herman Bolhaar on Thursday night.
"Men were planning to put explosives in the shops and wanted to cause casualties in busy places," he said.
Cohen told NOS radio on Friday morning that no explosives were found during the searches of the suspects' houses.
Police received the tip late on Wednesday night from an prepaid cell phone in Belgium. The tip also included names of one suspect and locations for police to search. The locations included Ikea and Media Markt, a large electronics store.
Cohen said the tip was "so specific" about names and places that it was decided to treat it as credible. The poilice contacted the secret service, AIVD, in order to verify the information.
By early morning, it was revealed that one of the suspects was a relative of one of the suspects in the Madrid train bombings, which killed 191 people and happened five years ago almost to the day. The relative killed himself when Spanish police raided his apartment at the time. "This established a link with Madrid," said Welten.
Early on Thursday morning, authorities shut down a major Amsterdam shopping street near the Arena football stadium and sealed off the nearby Ikea store. A concert by the American band "The Killers" in a local music hall was cancelled.
The houses of the suspects named by the anonymous caller were immediately put under surveillance. The first arrest took place around noon on Thursday; the last at 5.45 p.m. >>> News Staff, NRC Handelsblad International | Friday, March 13, 2009
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