Dutch Arrest Man for U.S. Embassy Bomb Threat

10/11/2004| IslamWeb

Dutch police have arrested a man for a "joke" bomb threat that forced the evacuation of the U.S. embassy in The Hague last week, they said on Wednesday. The embassy and several nearby restaurants were evacuated on Friday evening after a bomb threat, but the police found nothing suspicious. On Saturday the police arrested and later released a 27-year-old man after an anonymous tip, which they now say was made by the man who was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of making the original bomb threat. "There is a business dispute between the two and it looks like this was a very bad joke," said a police spokesman in The Hague. He declined to give any information on the suspect. In an unrelated incident, armed police in The Hague cordoned off a building where suspects sought in an anti-terrorism investigation were holed up after throwing a grenade at police officers trying to arrest them, wounding three. The Netherlands has been under a heightened security alert since July when a man was arrested on suspicion of planning attacks on key buildings, including Schiphol airport.