- Title: NETHERLANDS: MAN SETS ABLAZE TURKISH EMBASSY IN THE HAGUE
- Date: 5th November 2003
- Summary: (EU) THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS (NOVEMBER 4, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV PAN POLICE CAR AND AMBULANCE OUTSIDE TURKISH EMBASSY; SCU TURKISH FLAG OUTSIDE EMBASSY 0.21 2. SLV FIREMEN WALKING; SLV POLICEMEN, MEDICS AND FIREMEN STANDING TOGETHER (3 SHOTS) 0.36 3. SLV ROBOT TO CLEAR EXPLOSIVES; SLV TEAM TO CLEAR EXPLOSIVES 0.46 4. MV MAYOR AND CHIEF PROSECUTOR HAN MORAAL STARTING NEWS CONFERENCE 0.50 5. (SOUNDBITE) (Dutch) HAN MORAAL SAYING "What I can say it that this is not a case of a bomb and not a case of explosives but a bag with flammable material was thrown in. An arrest has already been made. At the central station of the Hague, the railway police arrested a 26-year-old man from the city of Haarlem." 1.11 6. MV JOURNALISTS LISTENING 1.16 7. (SOUNDBITE) (Dutch) HAN MORAAL, CHIEF PROSECUTOR OF THE HAGUE SAYING "At this moment we have no indication to think that there was a political motive or that we are dealing with a terrorist attack." 1.26 8. SLV POLICE AT SIDE OF EMBASSY; SLV MEDICS; SLV BLOCKED OF STREET (6 SHOTS) 2.01 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 20th November 2003 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS
- Country: Netherlands
- Reuters ID: LVA2NMP10SAN6UQLLXLAOHLYDD7G
- Story Text: Man sets ablaze Turkish embassy in The Hague.
A man set ablaze the Turkish embassy in the
Netherlands on Tuesday (November 4), slightly injuring five
people, but prosecutors said it was not a terrorist attack.
Police arrested a man, 26, from Haarlem after the
incident, in which the suspect and an embassy visitor who
jumped out of a window were among the injured, prosecutor
Han Moraal said.
The fire had been extinguished, officials said.
Officials had said an explosion rocked the embassy in
The Hague but Moraal told a news conference the man, whose
nationality was not disclosed, had tossed a bag containing
"flammable material" into the building.
"What I can say it that this is not a case of a bomb and
not a case of explosives, but a bag with flammable material
was thrown in. An arrest has already been made. At the
central station of the Hague, the railway police arrested a
26-year-old man from the city of Haarlem," Moraal said.
"There is no indication of a political motive and no
indication it was a terrorist attack," he added.
Turkey's ambassador to the Netherlands, Tacan Ildem,
said earlier a man had left a package after entering the
building to ask for information. The subsequent fire
damaged a door and the man ran away, Ildem told Turkish
television.
He said the man spoke Dutch and was not a Turkish
national.
Moraal said no second device had been found,
contradicting comments from a Turkish official that another
package had been discovered in the same area.
The suspect was arrested by railway police at the Hague
central train station and was in custody, Moraal said. The
other people injured in the incident were not in hospital.
Moraal said the fire brigade received an alarm around
11.30 a.m. (1030 GMT) that the embassy was on fire and
learned later that the suspect had been at the building
earlier.
The man had visited the embassy and had been involved
in a dispute with staff and then returned with the bag, he
added.
Moraal said he assumed the bag had been on fire when
the man threw it in. He could give no details of damage to
the embassy.
After the incident, the embassy was cordoned off by
police but not evacuated and bomb disposal experts were
called to the scene. Trams running nearby were diverted.
Kurdish separatists, far-leftists, Islamists, Armenian
and Greek militants have all carried out attacks on Turkish
targets since the 1970s.
An explosion rocked Turkey's embassy in Baghdad on
October 14, injuring two Iraqi policemen, days after the
Turkish parliament voted to allow troops to go to Iraq to
help U.S.-led occupation forces in a decision opposed by
many Iraqis.
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