Residents at the Teteringsedijk in Breda were woken up by a loud bang on Tuesday morning. Something was burning in front of Café de Haan. An incendiary bomb, local residents think. “I went to put it out. Flames came up to the facade.”
At just before two o’clock in the morning, local residents sat up in bed: there was a very loud bang in front of the cafe. “I’ve heard plenty of heavy fireworks, but this was really louder than cobras,” says one resident. He lives above the cafe with his father.
“The smoke came out above our window, then you are shocked. I quickly ran downstairs and started extinguishing the whole thing,” says his father. Meanwhile, his son called the emergency services. “When the fire brigade got here, I had already extinguished it. The police came too, but I don’t know if they found anything.”
The facade of the business is covered in soot, but the houses of local residents are undamaged. There is still a burnt plastic bottle with a hose attached to it in front of the entrance. The local resident believes that there was flammable liquid in it. “I think they hung this on the door. You also see that it is completely black, especially around the door handle.”
Remarkably enough, according to local residents, the security camera of the cafe has been gone for a few days. “I noticed that immediately last night. I understand that the owner will soon have to hand in his key, because his permit has been revoked. So he was already clearing things up a bit.”
It is not yet clear why something exploded in front of the store. But the two men say they are not surprised. They were regularly bothered by the cafe. “We had problems with noise, there were often fights in front of the door and strange figures in expensive cars came in and left soon after. I don’t know what was happening inside, of course, but it didn’t feel right,” says son .