A van has crashed into the head office of Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf in Amsterdam and burst into flames. The driver is still at large. Police say it was deliberate, but no one was injured.
The paper’s headquarters in the Basisweg area of the Dutch capital was hit by a white delivery van driving at high speed around 4am local lime (2am GMT) on Tuesday. The crash smashed the front windows of the building and caused a massive fire.
The flames were at least 14 meters high, according to a police spokesman cited by De Telegraaf. Photos published on social media show the firefighters battling the massive blaze, which was quickly extinguished, local media reported.
The driver managed to flee the scene, purportedly in a dark Audi, police said in a statement. The perpetrator is still at large and law enforcement has called on witnesses to provide any information they have on the incident.
Police suspect it was a deliberate action, while the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Paul Jansen, believes it was clearly an attack. While the incident caused no casualties, it could have been much worse, according to Jansen, as there were not many people inside in the middle of the night.
“We continue our work. We do not let it intimidate us,” he said in a statement.
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