The number of homemade bombs used for attacks on houses and cars is increasing. The Explosive Ordnance Disposal Service (EOD) increasingly has to take action for explosives that have been put together somewhere in an attic. How does that work and how dangerous are those bombs actually? “It’s as crazy as you can imagine what we find.”
Omroep Brabant visited the EOD and spoke with Major Peter, who does not want to use his last name in the media for security reasons.
His service has seen a clear shift lately: the homemade bombs displace the modern hand grenades from the former Eastern Bloc, which were often used in this type of attack. In 2021, the EOD had to turn out 11 times for a homemade bomb. In 2022 that was already 21 times and the year is not over yet.
Peter speaks of an ‘explosive rise’. “We are going to finish many times higher this year than last year, that’s for sure.”
The kind of hand grenades the EOD often encountered before:
What exactly is the difference between a hand grenade and a homemade bomb? To start with, the power, a homemade explosive, according to Peter, can be many times more powerful than a hand grenade.
“Take an M75 hand grenade, it contains about 40 grams of explosive. If we compare that with an improvised explosive device, it contains between 600 and 1000 grams of homemade explosive. That is considerably more than a hand grenade. You can do considerable damage there. create with it.”
We could see what that damage looks like in Den Bosch at the end of July. There a heavy explosion took place at the front door of a house on the Goedenrade. The damage was enormous. “This was not just any hand grenade,” said a policeman on the scene at the time.
It makes quite a difference for the work of the EOD, a hand grenade or a homemade bomb. Peter: “A hand grenade is made in a factory. It has to meet certain requirements and there is documentation. Then you can find out how it works, what you can do with it, what you can’t with it.”
This is not the case with an improvised explosive device. “Someone put that together in his attic. That makes it a lot more risky for the EOD.”
In addition, no home-made explosive is the same. “We see an enormous diversity of appearances. It is as crazy as you can imagine what we find.” There are roughly two types: explosives made with self-manufactured explosives, and explosives made with heavy fireworks.
The EOD can also defuse these types of bombs, although it can take longer. “We always want to work safely, which can ensure that it takes a long time before such an explosive is safely disabled. It is difficult, but we have arranged our affairs well,” emphasizes the major.
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