Fatal houseboat explosions stun neighbors, mayor

Neighbors of the houseboat on the Veerdijk in Wormer on which there was an explosion on Monday morning, are stunned by what happened. One neighbor, who preferred to remain anonymous, spoke to Dichtbij. He was the first to find the residents. "She was sitting in the street with her hair over her face and mumbled something. There was blood everywhere. He was already dead." he told the newspaper. When another neighbor arrived the man asked him to look after the woman and went to check on the man. "He was 25 meters beyond her, about 10 meters from the ship on his stomach. I wanted to put him in the recovery position, but his face was gone and he had no pulse." The neighbor finds what happened incomprehensible. He describes the two as very nice people. They chatted occasionally and had some wine together. He never noticed anything strange about them. He estimates that they had been living on the houseboat for about 8 years. Mayor Peter Tange of Wormerland called the explosion "extremely serious" on Radio 1. He did not substantively respond to reports that improvised explosive devices were used or their possible origin, AD reports. "Everything is being carefully checked." he said. The area around the houseboat was declared safe at around 15:00 on Monday afternoon and the residents of the 45 evacuated homes were allowed to return home. According to the AD, the Explosive Ordnance Disposal found an "improvised" explosive on the houseboat. The bomb was exploded in a safe location.