Shops in the Arena shopping mall and the Ikea furniture store in Amsterdam Zuidoost remained closed on Thursday afternoon as police continued to investigate what they described as ‘a serious threat involving explosives’.

A spokeswoman for Ikea told Amsterdam’s local broadcaster AT5 that the shop received a warning call at around 09.00 hours this morning but that the threat was not specifically aimed at Ikea.
As well as Ikea and the Arena shopping mall, a number of neighbouring shops and offices have been evacuated and police have cordoned off the area.
In December 2002 all 10 Ikea shops in the Netherlands were evacuated after a bomb warning and the discovery of suspect packages. In 2005 two men were jailed for seven years for blackmailing the Swedish furniture chain.