Three men from the Netherlands were arrested on Wednesday after a thud in Germany. Three officers were injured in the chase, one of them seriously injured.
The thud happened in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday at a bank in the town of Melle, about 100 kilometers east of Enschede. After the explosion in the ATM, the perpetrators fled in a black Audi RS3 towards the Netherlands.
Agents caught sight of the fleeing explosive squatters near Vörden and started the chase. It ended about an hour after the explosion near Wettrup, just across the border near Emmen. There, officers had placed a sharp stick on the road with which the tires of the getaway car were punctured.
When the tires were flat, the three occupants ran out of the car. Two of them were immediately arrested. According to the German police, they are 18 and 20 years old and have Dutch nationality. The third occupant, a 23-year-old Dutchman, initially managed to escape. The police used dogs, drones and a helicopter for the search and managed to find the man after a few hours. He walked alone through a meadow, and when officers approached him, he ran away. However, the officers managed to handcuff him.
Racing and laser pointers
To evade the police, the men raced at high speed on German roads. They also shined laser pointers at the police to blind the officers. One of the police cars had an accident during the chase. One officer in that car was seriously injured, another slightly injured. A third officer was injured when overpowering the running perpetrators.
Germany has been struggling with many explosions at ATMs in recent years. Some explosive raids are the work of Dutch gangs. According to the police, a group of about 500 men from the Amsterdam and Utrecht regions is behind it, who strike in varying compositions. They would have fled to Germany because Dutch ATMs are better protected.
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