On New Year’s Eve, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a church in Arnhem, causing a fire, the police report. A volunteer from the Pentecostal church Oase, which uses the church, managed to extinguish the fire.
Around 10 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, Jan van Schuylenburg arrived at the church and found a large group of young people there, he says.
After a scooter had pulled away, he heard a bang. “I ran to the front door. To my left I saw a huge flash of very heavy fireworks.” On camera images, the church volunteer later saw that a flame flew from the church door over the sidewalk.
Van Schuylenburg attacked the fire with a foam extinguisher. According to him, it was a PET bottle with pieces of fireworks on it. “A kind of Molotov cocktail 2.0.” The window over the door had blown away.
He does not have the impression that the action is per se directed against their church, but does speak of an attack. “It’s a deliberate arson attempt and a good one at that. They were just unlucky that I was there.”
The Pentecostal church also had to deal with arson last year, reports Broadcasting Gelderland. Windows were smashed by an explosive.
Here are images of the explosion:
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