21-year-old Thijm from Herpen was beaten up on the Verwersstraat in Den Bosch during the eleventh of the eleventh. He is seriously injured in intensive care with a fractured skull and bleeding in his brain.
“It is unreal and very intense,” his mother Esther Bens said on Sunday. “We have really been in a mess of emotions since yesterday.”
Thijm was attacked out of nowhere on Saturday afternoon when he was walking through the city with a 21-year-old friend from Tilburg. “They celebrated the eleventh of the eleventh in Den Bosch,” said his mother. “He texted his girlfriend that they were on their way to another place.”
Shortly after that message, things must have gone wrong. Bens: “At half past five, I received a phone call: Thijm had been knocked unconscious.”
Thijm’s mother heard what happened from a group of young girls. “According to them, a man walked past Thijm and his friend. He allegedly pushed that friend on the shoulder. Then Thijm got a blow on the nose.”
‘Seems like a nonsensical action’
After the blow, Thijm reportedly fell with his head on the curb. “He was immediately unconscious. None of the bystanders know why this happened. It seems like a senseless action.”
Thijm was taken to hospital by ambulance. Bens: “Thijm has now regained consciousness for a while and he is breathing on his own. But if swelling develops in his brain, things can suddenly get worse.”
In a message on Facebook, Bens calls on people to report if they have seen anything about the abuse. The post has now been shared more than 1,500 times.
To give evidence
It was busy on Saturday afternoon in the city center of Den Bosch. The police expect that many people have experienced something of the incident and are calling on witnesses to come forward.