It was not an everyday journey for passengers at Eindhoven station tonight. A train was met by armed police as part of a major search for a ‘suspicious man’.
Heavily armed agents filled the train on which the man was travelling. Passengers were ordered to raise their hands and not to move or laugh.
Marc Cabret was travelling on the train in question. ‘It was very quiet in the carriage,’ he says.
The train arrived at the station at 5:20pm. ‘We were then told that we were not allowed to leave the train,’ says Marc. The driver announced that we had to stay seated and that the police were on their way. ‘That took about half an hour. Then armed police entered the carriage. Everyone had to raise their hands. We were not allowed to move.’
The police officers checked all passengers before leaving the train about 5 minutes later. The passengers were then allowed to leave the train, too.
According to NS, on the police’s instructions, all trains to and from Eindhoven were blocked until around 7:45pm.
A quiet encounter
Marvin Smulders was travelling on a different train that arrived at platform 3. From that platform, he saw police officers with dogs, walking around platform 1. ‘All passengers were then sent away. We have been waiting downstairs inside the station for a while.’
Marvin says that the police eventually arrested the suspect. ‘The suspect walked quietly into the crowd. A police officer saw him and stopped him. An arrest team rushed over to him immediately after that.’
Despite its appearances, Marvin said that the situation was not chaotic. ‘It was all very quiet,’ he says.
Source: Omroep Brabant and Studio040
Translator: Rachael Vickerman
