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Dutch police search for Ikea bombs
Wednesday, December 4, 2002 Posted: 1128 GMT
Police patrol the grounds of an IKEA store in Amsterdam
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AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- All 10 stores belonging to the Swedish-based home furnishings chain Ikea in the Netherlands have been closed after the discovery of explosive devices.
Two policemen were injured while defusing one of two bombs found in outlets in Amsterdam and Sliedrecht, a town near the port city of Rotterdam.
The Sliedrecht device exploded on Tuesday evening at a police station, where it had been taken to be defused, according to a police statement.
There was no immediate information on the type of explosive device or how they were discovered, or about who was responsible.
Police also examined a suspect package found at a store in Utrecht, central Netherlands, on Wednesday, but said later it was not an explosive device.
All Ikea's Dutch stores were closed on Wednesday and its 4,000 employees told not to come to work, a company spokeswoman said.
The discovery of the bombs coincides with one of the Ikea's busiest shopping weeks in the Netherlands.
"We decided together with the police because of safety reasons that the company's stores in the Netherlands would be closed today," IKEA spokeswoman Helen van Trearum told Reuters.
"We don't want to take any risks. We are taking this very seriously."
Although no-one has claimed responsibility for planting the bombs, Michael Hoogers, of De Telegraaf newspaper, told CNN that police did not believe terrorists were responsible.
He said there had been anti-Ikea demonstrations in the Netherlands a few years ago.
"They suspected Ikea of selling products made by children in the Third World. Child labour was the reason behind those protests," he said.
"Maybe that is the reason for these attacks, though nothing has been confirmed."
Also on Wednesday the head office of Dutch news agency ANP in The Hague was evacuated after police received a warning that a bomb might have been planted in the building.
"There was a report coming in from police in Rijswijk that there were explosives in the building. They had a warning," ANP editor-in-chief Rob de Spa told Reuters. "Everybody's standing on the street at the moment."
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