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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: frankw1900 who wrote (59806)	12/4/2002 11:19:22 AM
From: KLP	Respond to of 281500

It is indeed ironic. Here's a new update: IKEA's Dutch Stores Closed After Bombs Found 1 hour, 49 minutes ago By Paul Gallagher AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Police sealed off 10 IKEA stores in the Netherlands Wednesday after bombs found at two branches of the world's biggest furniture retailer were defused at the start of the busy Christmas shopping season. All the Swedish furniture giant's Dutch outlets were shut down after explosives were found at outlets in Amsterdam and at Sliedrecht in the southwest of the country Tuesday. Two officers were injured defusing the bombs at police stations. Dutch officials were quick to rule out a potential terror link, but it was not immediately clear who might be responsible. A bomb disposal squad blew up a suspect package at a third store in the central city of Utrecht Wednesday as IKEA's 4,000 Dutch workers were told to stay home after the company received a bomb threat in a letter. Police later said the Utrecht package had not been a bomb. "Police and the public prosecutor have no indications that there is any question of terrorist action in the 'bomb incident' at IKEA," the public prosecutor said in a statement. But they remained tight-lipped about potential suspects or how they received warnings about bombs planted in stores packed with beds, sofas, kitchen equipment, lighting and toys. Four suspected Islamic militants accused of plotting blasts at the U.S. embassy in Paris and a Belgian airforce base are currently on trial in Rotterdam, charged with complicity to murder. IKEA, which started life in a small Swedish farming village in 1943, now has stores in more than 30 countries worldwide. The furniture giant said it hoped its Dutch stores would reopen on Thursday. Dec. 5 is the traditional Dutch Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas) festival when children are showered with gifts. The bomb scares sent shockwaves through the Netherlands with police and emergency services at full stretch. Police, the fire brigade and ambulance crews ringed IKEA stores while roads were temporarily sealed off, snarling traffic. "On Tuesday December 3, IKEA Netherlands received a letter with a bomb threat directed at IKEA," the company said on its web site. "There are no indications that terror groups are involved," it added. BOMB EMERGENCY "It's terrible that this is happening," said IKEA spokeswoman Helen van Trearum. "We decided together with the police because of safety reasons that the company's stores in the Netherlands would be closed today." IKEA, which opened its first store in the Netherlands in 1979, generates sales of around 11 billion euros (dollars) a year around the world. Dutch emergency services, flat out trying to cope with the IKEA alarm, also had to deal with another bomb alert at the head office of Dutch news agency ANP in Rijswijk, near The Hague (news - web sites). The offices were evacuated after police received a warning that a bomb might have been planted in the building. ANP later reported that no suspect objects had been found. The public prosecutor said there was nothing to suggest a link between the IKEA bombs and the ANP scare, or with another bomb warning police received Wednesday in connection with an industrial estate in Assen, in the northern Netherlands.