Police have arrested two Dutch 17-year-olds on suspicion of spying, possibly for Russia, the Telegraaf reported on Friday.

According to the father of one of the boys, his son was recruited on Telegram by a pro-Russian hacker.

In August this year, the boy allegedly walked past the offices of Europol, Eurojust and the Canadian embassy in The Hague carrying a so-called “wifi sniffer”, a device which tracks down nearby networks and intercepts data.

The OM would not comment on the case in view of the young age of the suspects, but confirmed that one of the boys will remain in custody for another two weeks while the other is under house arrest and has been given an electronic tag.

According to the father of the main suspect, eight men wearing balaclavas entered the house late afternoon on Monday with a warrant to search the house. They went straight to the room where his son was doing his homework, and took him away, telling his father only it was about “espionage” and “rendering services to a foreign country”.

“My son doesn’t go out, he has a job at a supermarket and shows no desire to explore the world,” he said. The son is described as being a fanatical gamer, good with computers and with a fascination for hacking.

The arrests took place after a tip-off from intelligence service AIVD.

Although this is the first case of its kind to come to light in the Netherlands, in Germany the government has gone as far as to start a campaign warning youngsters not to become a “disposable agent.”