Yesterday was a public holiday in the Netherlands, so my sister and I went for a bike ride, in Germany (I live very close to the border). When we were on our way back and reached the Netherlands again, we noticed several flags at half-mast. We thought it rather odd, considering it was Queen's Day, a day on which you generally see flags everywhere but not half-mast. We turned on the news as soon as we got home, only to find that someone tried to attack the Queen and the rest of the royal family as they were in the middle of a Queen's Day parade. He tried to drive his car into the royal bus at full speed but missed the bus entirely. The royals were not harmed but several people along the route of the parade were killed during the attempt. Needless to say, all festivities were cancelled for the rest of the day.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8026807.stm

During the night, the attacker died of his injuries. I hope they'll still find out what his reasons were, even though that got a lot more difficult now that he's dead. I wonder what had gotten into that guy, and what he hoped to accomplish. A small car against a bus is not really a fair match after all.

The last thing I heard on NBC News, this morning, was that the driver of the car, had recently lost his job, and was in danger of losing his house. He obviously blamed the Royal Family. It is a sad story, that we hear more, and more lately.

Maybe he wanted to make a statement, who knows, but I really don't care. He spoiled one of the most enjoyable days of the year for everyone, killed seven people and injured another eight, among them two children. I am just very sad about it

This was on the news here - pretty shocking stuff.

My thoughts and prayers to the Dutch, especially the friends and families of those who were killed. No matter what his "reasons," it is tragic that this person chose this kind of an action.

Y

Did anyone see the videos of the attack? I'm wondering how the car got that damaged before it hit the pillar... I wouldn't think hitting people would have damaged a car so severely, so I'm wondering if it hit something else beforehand.

I wondered about that too. They say the car drove through a few fence-like road barriers to get to where he ended up, so maybe that's what caused the damage. Those fences are not all that heavy though so he must have been driving pretty fast.

I am so sorry that happened Leau, your Queen looked so distressed on television. Those poor innocent people enjoying themselves, tragic.

This whole incident was really very sad. It was mentioned quite a lot over here; news about the Dutch royals and Máxima (being Argentine) are always big here.

It really makes you wonder why the man did what he did. It's so sad and tragic that several people died and were injured because of the problems he was having.