1.5 Tons of Fireworks Found Under Amsterdam Apartment Block

Idiocy is suspected in the case of one and a half tons of fireworks found stored in the basement a block of flats in the Jan Pieter Heijestraat in West Amsterdam. A spokesman for the police speculated that any sort of flame coming into contact with the densely packed explosives could have had unfortunate consequences for the large number of residents living in the floors above the stash.

It is not known, at this time, who place the fireworks there. A 65 year old man was arrested but later released.

Fireworks have been mostly banned from public sale but, of course, they are not banned in Belgium and a lucrative industry has sprung up around driving carloads across the border into The Netherlands. Predictably enough, the ban now means that instead of being stored by legitimate businesses in purpose-built storerooms, the nations massive appetite for pyrotechnic fun is now being fed by secret caches of fireworks hidden in basements all over the country. Amsterdam now has more hidden explosives than Belfast.

Asked to comment on whether intrusive, over-reaching government, rather than being the answer, might, in fact, be the problem, a government spokesperson declined to comment.