THE HAGUE (AFP) - Two people arrested in an apartment in The Hague after a 14-hour police siege are suspected of terrorist conspiracy with the aim of murder, a prosecutor said.
Altogether five people were arrested in the Netherlands Wednesday as part of anti-terrorist operations, Mark van der Eerve of the state attorney's office told a news conference.
Mayor Willem Deetman warned that the site of the siege had not yet been made completely secure, and 200 local residents had been evacuated because of the danger of the presence of explosives.
After the daylong siege police arrested the two suspects in the apartment, who were not immediately identified.
Police evacuated five city streets and banned air traffic over The Hague after the suspects hurled a grenade that injured three officers in the pre-dawn raid.
Police said the raid was not linked to an investigation into the murder last week of filmmaker Theo van Gogh allegedly by an Islamic extremist, but was part of a separate investigation into suspected terrorists.
11/10/2004 - 22:39 GMT - AFP