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De Punt
De Punt is a village in the Dutch province of Drenthe. It is a part of the municipality of Tynaarlo, and lies about 11 km south of Groningen. The village closely cooperates with Yde and they are often referred to as Yde-De Punt, however both are still separate villages. History The village was first mentioned in 1424 as "ter Punte", and means "ferry". It refers to a ferry over the Drentsche Aa. In the early 19th century, it consisted of an inn and one house. De Punt was home to 7 people in 1840. In 2008, De Punt reached national headlines as the site of a fire in a shipyard, in which three firemen, aged 29 (Raymond Patrick Soyer), 38 (Egbert Ubels) and 48 (Anne Kregel), died. They are commemorated by the asteroid 12156 Ubels. 1977 train hostage crisis De Punt was the site for the 1977 Dutch train hostage crisis. In 1949, Indonesia became independent, and the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army was disbanded. The islands of Ambon, Buru, and Seram had fought on side ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1977 Dutch Train Hostage Crisis On 23 May 1977, a train was hijacked near the village of De Punt, Netherlands. At around 09:00 that morning, nine armed Moluccan nationalists pulled the emergency brake and took over 50 people hostage. The hijacking lasted 20 days and ended with a raid by Dutch counter-terrorist special forces, during which two hostages and six hijackers were killed. The same day as the train hijacking, four other South Moluccans took over a hundred hostages at an elementary school in Bovensmilde, around 20 km (12 mi) away. The train hijacking was only the second such hijacking to take place in the Netherlands; the other, a 1975 train hijacking in Wijster, had also been perpetrated by Moluccans. Background After fighting for the Dutch in the Dutch East Indies, thousands of South Moluccans were forcibly exiled to the Netherlands. The Dutch government promised they would eventually get their own independent state, the Republic of South Maluku (RMS). But after about 25 years of living in ... [...More Info...] |