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Pokemon fever gives Amsterdam hospital staff a headache

July 12, 2016
Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam
Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam

Cafes, public parks and a major hospital are among the places in the Netherlands to have been caught up in the Pokemon revival – and not all of them are happy about it.

Amsterdam’s teaching hospital, the AMC, said it had found game players hunting for Pokemon characters in areas that were off-limits to the public. ‘We don’t want people going into sick people’s rooms,’ a spokesman told NOS.

In Pokemon Go, players have to ‘catch’ 150 animated creatures by snapping them on their smartphones. The beasts are hidden in real-life locations but are only visible on the phone app.

The AMC has tried to deal with the problem by posting a tweet saying that the Pokemon in the hospital is too sick to receive visitors.

Er is een zieke pokémon in het AMC – wij zullen goed voor ‘m zorgen. We stellen het op prijs als je ‘m niet bezoekt. pic.twitter.com/u8RACvGZgp

— Dit account is inactief (@AMC_NL) July 11, 2016

Elsewhere, the organisers of the Zwarte Cross music and biking festival received a tweet from a mother demanding that her daughter should be allowed onto the site to hunt Pokemon.

A cafe in Albergen has banned the game after seeing customers spend hours staring at their phones. ‘People were going stir crazy and the beer was falling off the trays,’ he told NOS. A sauna in Haarlem has also banned the game because of concerns about the implications of naked sauna users wandering around with camera phones.

Road safety body VVD even issued a warning that people could be killed while playing the game because they are not paying attention to traffic.

And according to broadcaster RTL news, rail company ProRail h as contacted the makers of the game and urged them to stop encouraging people to walk along railway tracks. The company has a responsibility to ensure everyone can play the game in safety, ProRail said.

Gaan jullie maar lekker filerijden, dan vangen wij de Pokémon wel. #PokémOff pic.twitter.com/PPeQwIWGGM

— VID (@vid) July 12, 2016


The Telegraaf reported earlier on Tuesday that a group of children out playing the game found the body of a woman in a pond, but it has not been confirmed they were hunting Pokémon. The woman, who may have lived in a nearby nursing home, is thought to have committed suicide.

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