This morning, two mail bombs exploded in Amsterdam and Kerkrade. According to the police, the letters made a hissing sound before they detonated. Luckily, no one was injured.
In Kerkrade, the letter bomb exploded in the mailroom of the company Ricoh, located on Wiebachstraat. One of the employees in the mailroom heard an odd hissing sound coming from a package and discarded it. The staff present then left the mailroom and a little while later an explosion followed. Nine people were present when this happened. Luckily, no one was hurt, but it is still unclear how much damage was caused.
A similar thing happened In Amsterdam at an ABN Amro post-sorting centre. There, an employee opened a large, fat envelope and heard a hissing sound. Upon hearing this, they quickly threw away the letter and there was a small explosion. No one was injured, thankfully. At both locations, the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit (EOD) has inspected the explosives.
Back in January, mail bombs were discovered across the country. These were sent to seven businesses in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam and Maastricht. A threatening letter followed the letter bombs, but luckily none detonated. All these letters were made to look like they had been sent by the Central Collections Agency (CIB).
Since these seven, no other letter bombs had turned up, until now. The police were looking for a single culprit. As far as we know, no one has yet been arrested. It has also not been established whether there is a connection between these mail bombs and the ones sent last month.