The Attack
On June 11, 1977, a Saturday morning and almost three weeks after the start of the hijacking, six F-104 Starfighter jetplanes flew low over the train at 5:00 AM with the purpose of disorienting the hijackers and also make the hostages duck down to the floor of the train where they would be relatively safe. Then marines of the special anti-terrorist unit Bijzondere Bijstands Eenheid (BBE) started shooting at the train; an estimated 15000 bullets were shot at the train. The marines aimed at the first class and in-between compartments with the doors but they did know that these were the areas where the hijackers were hiding . One of the hostages killed was in such a compartment because she was allowed there by the hijackers before. Six hijackers were killed.
Read more about this topic: 1977 Dutch Train Hostage Crisis
Famous quotes containing the word attack:
“His spiritual life has been exaggerated by a chronic attack of mental gallstones.”
—Oliver St. John Gogarty (1878–1957)
“Adolescents swing from euphoric self-confidence and a kind of narcissistic strength in which they feel invulnerable and even immortal, to despair, self-emptiness, self-deprecation. At the same time they seem to see an emerging self that is unique and wonderful, they suffer an intense envy which tears narcissism into shreds, and makes other people’s qualities hit them like an attack of lasers.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)