Police thwart attack in Battel district of Mechelen: “Two Dutch people arrested with jerry can and balaclava” | Mechelen

“In the night of Thursday 23 to Friday 24 February last, the police noticed a suspicious vehicle with Dutch number plates,” says Lieselotte Claessens of the Mechelen department of the Antwerp public prosecutor’s office. “There were two people in the car. They had a balaclava and a jerry can. Spray cans with paint, various mobile phones and banners with an inscription were also found in the car. All items found can be linked to previous attacks in Mechelen.”

The Dutch duo was reportedly found on Battelsesteenweg in the vicinity of Bethaniënstraat. This in the context of the increased vigilance at the local Rivierenland police zone since the start of a series of attacks last week. Then incendiary bombs were thrown at a house in the Bethaniënstraat and in the Kalverenstraat. Yesterday, the public prosecutor’s office already announced that it could arrest a suspect in one of these two files.

It would be a 19-year-old Dutchman. He would have thrown an incendiary bomb on the house in the Bethaniënstraat. He was arrested that same day in the Netherlands and is currently in a cell awaiting his surrender to our country. With the arrest of the two young Dutchmen, aged 19 and 20 respectively, earlier this week, the police in Battel seem to have avoided a new planned attack in the drug environment.

“At the request of the public prosecutor, a judicial investigation into the facts was started. One to participation in a criminal organization,” says prosecutor Claessens. After their arrest, both suspects were interrogated at the police station and eventually brought to the investigating judge in Mechelen. “He decided to arrest them both,” concludes Claessens. The two Dutchmen are currently in jail. They will appear before the council chamber in Mechelen on Tuesday.