Royal Family of the netherlands subject to a terrorist attack?

**Chris Moss Acid** · April 30, 2009

Four people were killed and more than a dozen wounded on Thursday when a driver hurtled his car into a crowd at a parade, narrowly missing an open bus carrying Queen Beatrix and members of her family.

Dutch officials said the man had “acted deliberately” but they ruled out links with a terrorist group. “The driver is suspected of trying to attack the royal family,” a spokesperson for the Dutch police said, not giving additional details as to a possible motive.

Police immediately arrested the driver who was trapped in his car as it crashed into a monument. Authorities declined to provide the person’s name, but said he was a 38-year old Dutchman who apparently acted alone and carried no weapons or explosives. The investigation into the incident was ongoing.

Television footage of the festive parade, which is traditionally held to celebrate the Queen’s birthday, showed police rushing toward wounded onlookers lying on the ground and showed members of the royal household atop an open bus looking stunned and raising their hands in horror. Police said that four people were dead and 13 wounded, five of them seriously.

Queen Beatrix, looking tense and shaken, later appeared on national television. “What began as a beautiful day has ended in a terrible drama which has shocked all of us,” she said, shaking her head. “We are speechless that such a terrible event could have happened.”

The incident raised a host of questions how the driver could have broken through several police barricades before he drove into the large crowd and swerved toward the bus carrying the royal family, missing it by about ten yards, eyewitnesses said.

Security, which used to be lax in The Netherlands, has become stricter in recent years since several public figures were killed on the streets. In the town of Apeldoorn, where the Queen has her favorite palace, and where the street festivities to celebrate her birthday where taking place, numerous streets had been blocked off before the parade.

The small black car suddenly appearing had seemed the work of a prankster, eyewitnesses said, until they saw people scooped up and being hurtled into the air.

Fred de Graaf, the mayor of Apeldoorn, said that eight of the injured were in serious condition. All further Queen’s Day festivities were being canceled, he said. Holiday programs also were called off in the port city of Rotterdam, and more were likely to be canceled around the country, The Associated Press reported.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/world/eu....html?ref=world

this is pretty horrible, there are some youtube videos of the aftermath but i dont perticually want to put them up in this thread. its totally horrible. :confused: