Shocked reactions in Nieuw-Dordrecht after last night’s explosion. Local residents were startled awake by the explosions around half past five this morning. Anyone who looked outside saw that a thud happened at the cash machine in community center De Klink.
“We heard a bang. I walked to the front window and saw three men busy,” says neighbor Erwin. “One was on his knees. Then the second bang came, a huge fireball added, I was very shocked by that.”
Still, he went out. “Yes, I walked out with my stupid head and shouted: ‘What are you doing here, get out!’ Then I saw them pack things up and they drove off.”
After the blast, many local residents came out. Marcel Bruinsma was one of them. He lives behind the ATM with his father. “I also woke up at half past four from a bang. Then a second bang, really very loud, which also caused a window in the house to burst.”
The manager of the community center calls the squat “appalling”. “The closer we get to it, the more emotional it gets,” says Lucy Jalving. “You can’t do anything, you’re powerless and you can’t reach it.
The whole neighborhood was awake, it became a kind of meeting. There was shelter in De Rank, for warmth and coffee. Looking inside was not immediately possible. “I haven’t been in yet, but you can see some walls. I’m afraid we’re going to see some weird stuff.”
There is one additional problem. The village hall would also be the polling station on Wednesday. “Wait and see how that turns out,” says Jalving.
After the local residents had been outside for a while, they could go to De Rank. There they could hear each other’s stories. And there were. Bruinsma: “It is certainly a shock, my heart rate was very high and the adrenaline is flowing.”
Erwin felt that too, that adrenaline. “It was also really stupid that I went outside, but you don’t know in advance how you will react at such a moment.”
Whoever you speak to, everyone knows that the ATM is important in the village. Bruinsma experiences it up close, because he lives with his 83-year-old father. “He hardly does anything with the debit card, he wants cash. Now we have to go to Klazienaveen or Emmen to pin. That is doable in itself, but it is manageable.”
Jalving confirms that. “The Geldmaat is widely used, also by people from Barger-Oosterveld and Klazienaveen. And here in Nieuw-Dordrecht it is important for older people in the area.”
“We would like it to stay. It’s the second time now, and this time it’s worse than the first time. I don’t know what they’re going to do with it, wait and see.”