NETHERLANDS: Police sealed off 10 IKEA stores in the Netherlands yesterday, after bombs found at two branches of the world's biggest furniture retailer were defused at the start of the Christmas shopping season.
All the Swedish furniture company's Dutch outlets were shut down after explosives were found at branches in Amsterdam and Sliedrecht on 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 Utrecht yesterday as IKEA's 4,000 Dutch workers were told to stay home after the company received a bomb threat in a letter.
Police said later 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.
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 explosions at the US 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, many of which are in Europe but none in Ireland. The company said it hoped its Dutch stores would reopen today.
The bomb scares sent shockwaves through the Netherlands.
Police, the fire brigade and ambulance crews ringed IKEA stores while roads were temporarily sealed off.
"On Tuesday, 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's terrible that this is happening," said IKEA spokeswoman Ms 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 about €11 billion a year around the world.
Dutch emergency services, busy trying to cope with the IKEA alarm, also had to deal with another bomb alert at the head office of the news agency ANP in Rijswijk, near The Hague.
The offices were evacuated after police received a warning that a bomb might have been planted in the building. ANP reported later 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 yesterday in connection with an industrial estate in Assen, in the northern Netherlands. - (Reuters)