Hundreds of people had to leave Eindhoven Central Station around six o’clock on Sunday evening or they were unable to enter the building. The alarm went off for unknown reasons. According to a spokesperson for the Dutch Railways (NS), the alarm was false and train traffic was not disrupted. After half an hour, the entrance gates were reactivated.
The spokesperson says that the alarm was accidentally switched on by an employee of one of the shops in the station building. NS staff quickly realized that no calamity had occurred. Travelers or other people who had been directed outside were then notified that they were allowed back in, she added.
A 112 correspondent doubts that. He said that until shortly before the building was reopened – about half an hour after the alarm went off – people had been ordered to leave the building by NS employees. He also noticed that there were no police or other enforcers to manage the crowds. According to him, it was very busy both on the center side and on the side of the Neckerspoel bus station.
Although NS staff quickly knew that nothing serious was going on, according to the spokesperson, the alarm continued to sound. “It took much longer than we wanted to reset the alarm,” she said. This was due to a technical malfunction. The discomfort lasted about half an hour. “This may have led to conflicting readings,” the spokesperson said. “The police were deliberately not called in, because it quickly became clear that it was a false alarm.”
The NS is investigating what caused the disruption to prevent a recurrence. The spokesperson finds it ‘very annoying’ for the people who have suffered from the false alarm.
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