1977 Dutch Train Hostage Crisis

1977 Dutch Train Hostage Crisis

On May 23, 1977 a train hijacking took place close to Drentsche Aa river bridge at de Punt (in the village of Glimmen) on the provincial border between Groningen and Drenthe, northeastern Netherlands. Nine armed Moluccans pulled the emergency brake around 9 AM and took about 50 people as hostages. The hijacking lasted for 482 hours (20 days); two hostages and six hijackers were killed. At the same time four other South-Moluccans took hostages at an elementary school in the village of Bovensmilde, also in Drenthe.

This was the second train hijacking in the Netherlands and, like the train hijacking in 1975 in Wijster, was perpetrated by Moluccans.

Read more about 1977 Dutch Train Hostage Crisis:  Context, Developments, Negotiators, The Attack, Aftermath

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