Coffeeshop Caza in Tilburg again became the target of an attack on Friday night. According to the police, an explosive was thrown at the business, which ultimately did not go off. Two security guards were standing in front of the door at the time, one of them was hit. The case must now be closed again for a month, the owner’s lawyer told Omroep Brabant.
The attack happened around three o’clock at night. The security guards saw something being thrown at the coffee shop. The men jumped up and ran, but the explosive did not go off.
The area was cordoned off and the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Service was called. The thrown object turned out to be a bottle of flammable liquid with an explosive attached to it. If it had gone off, the security guards would “certainly have been injured, or worse,” according to police.
The security guards have reported attempted manslaughter. Mayor Theo Weterings has now put a lock on the building again, the owner of the coffee shop said through his lawyer.
“It is extremely annoying that this has happened again, but he cannot do anything about it,” lawyer Bisar Çiçek says about his client. “There’s 24-hour security. And I think that worked, in the sense that the explosive didn’t go off.”
According to Çiçek, the building will now not be closed for three months, but only for one month. “This shows that the mayor also sees that security has acted adequately,” said the lawyer. According to a spokesperson for the municipality, it remains to be seen later whether more measures will be taken.
Coffee shop already targeted eight times
It is not the first attack on the coffee shop on the Gasthuisring. The business opened its doors again at the beginning of November, after eight previous attacks. The municipality decided to close the business six times.
Local residents were already uneasy about it at the time. But the owner of coffee shop Caza was hopeful that things would remain quiet. A safety plan had been drawn up together with the municipality. An important condition was that security would be present 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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Residents already feared a new attack upon the reopening