Residents living above a toy shop on Abraham Staalmanplein in Amsterdam Nieuw-West were temporarily evacuated overnight after an explosive device was discovered outside the store.
Emergency services received the initial report around 1:30 AM, and officers began knocking on doors shortly before 4:00 AM to clear the surrounding homes.
Around twenty apartments were cleared as a precaution while specialist units handled the situation.
Defense forces respond
The device did not detonate, but military bomb disposal experts from the Ministerie van Defensie were called in to safely remove it from the square.
Officers arrested two people at the scene in connection with the incident.
Evacuated residents were transported by a GVB bus to a nearby police station on Johan Huizingalaan for temporary shelter.
Families were permitted to return to their homes shortly before 5:30 AM once authorities declared the area safe.
Repeated neighborhood incidents
This is the third major security incident targeting the same location in recent weeks, following two previous explosions and an act of vandalism at the shop.
The Gemeente Amsterdam had already installed temporary mobile surveillance cameras on the square earlier in the week in response to the growing safety concerns.
Local business owners and residents expressed ongoing anxiety about the safety of living above commercial spaces subject to such threats.
Police investigations are active to determine if all the recent events at the site are connected, as no suspects have been named for the earlier detonations.
