NOS News•
Four Dutch men are detained for a thud attack in Germany last week. The foursome was arrested a few hours later in the Netherlands. Detectives have now been able to link them to the thud.
It concerns three men aged 21 and a man aged 24. The German authorities suspect them of blowing up an ATM on Friday morning in a shopping center in Mülheim, between Duisburg and Essen. Photos show significant damage. It was not disclosed whether any money was stolen.
Betrayed by dye
It now appears that the suspects were arrested later that day during a check in the border area. Dutch agents found cash with a dye on it in their car. This is often released during explosive raids, to render captured money unusable.
The men also had colored spots on their clothing. One of them turned out to be so injured that he was taken to a hospital.
A special Dutch-German detective team has now linked the foursome to the explosion in Mülheim. They are also suspected of having crashed and set fire to their getaway car.
Nearly 500 cracks
Germany is plagued by explosive attacks, often carried out by perpetrators from the Netherlands. Last year alone there were 496, more than a hundred more than the year before. Most are in the states bordering the Netherlands, North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony.
At the beginning of this month, the authorities struck another blow against explosive squatters. Then nine suspects were arrested in the Netherlands and Belgium who are said to be behind fifty explosive attacks in Germany.
