Bomb alerts for Dutch railways

2004-03-25 16:06

Amsterdam - Dutch authorities on Thursday cleared Amsterdam's central train station and the station in Roosendaal near the border with Belgium after receiving two bomb alerts, a spokesperson for the Dutch railways said.

All train traffic to and from Amsterdam has been halted, said Jan Kuit of ProRail, the managing company of the Dutch railway network.

The traffic around Roosendaal was also halted. This means that all international trains to Brussels and Paris will suffer unknown delays, Kuit said.

Roosendaal is the border station for most trains bound for Belgium and France including the high speed Thalys to Paris. There is no other train station to divert them to, according to Kuit.

In Amsterdam hundreds of passengers were cleared from an area of about a kilometre around the central station which is only a stone's throw from Amsterdam's famous Dam square in the town centre.

In Amsterdam subways, trams and busses were also diverted away from the central train station. The Dutch ANP news agency reports that tourist sight-seeing boats which moor in front of the station were also taken out of service.

Police said that they are taking the bomb threat "very seriously".

- AFP