Royal attack: death toll rises to eight

Saturday 09 May 2009

The death toll in the Queen's Day attack rose to eight on Friday evening following the death of a 46-year-old woman.

She had been very seriously injured when Karst Tates drove his black Suzuki into the crowd watching the royal family arrive in an open bus.

At the memorial service in Apeldoorn on Friday evening, prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende said the Netherlands had been 'hit in its soul'. But luckily the Netherlands can value its queen who is so closely at one with the pain of the victims and their relatives, the prime minister said.

Some 5,000 people had gathered on the city's Marktplein to follow the service on three big screens. The organisers had expected a crowd of 10,000.

Security was tight. The Volkskrant reports that a 1,000 police officers were on duty, concrete road blocks closed of all roads to the theatre where the ceremony took place and 25 buses full of riot police were on standby.

'This has been done so that people feel absolutely safe,' deputy mayor Fokke Spoelstra told the paper.

The service was also attended by queen Beatrix, crown prince Willem-Alexander, princess Máxima and princess Magriet.

© DutchNews.nl

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