Story By: Koen Berghuis, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
Video Credit: CEN/Opsporing Verzocht
This is the moment a bungling criminal tries to torch a police station with a Molotov cocktail but instead he misses when it bounces off a cigarette bin in the entrance.
The incident happened on Sunday 26th May but police have only now released the CCTV footage of the attack.
The petrol bomb attack took place at around 6am at the main police station in Eindhoven, a city in the province of North Brabant in the southern part of the Netherlands.
The footage shows the suspect walking towards the police station with multiple CCTV cameras capturing his movements.
When the suspect arrives outside the station’s main entrance, he suddenly takes a Molotov cocktail out of his yellow plastic bag and hurls it towards the building.
Picture Credit: CEN/Opsporing Verzocht
However, the arson attempt fails as the bottle bounces harmlessly off a cigarette bin onto the steps leading towards the entrance.
A police spokesman said: “The burning object hit a standing cigarette bin which was placed there and fell broken to the ground.
Police officers were quick to extinguish the small fire, but were unable to chase the suspect who escaped on foot.
The attack caused little damage, although the spokesperson said that it was “an attack on a government building” as it is “the intention that counts”.
According to the police spokesperson, the suspect “remains unidentified so far” which is why they decided to release the CCTV footage in the hope that it will lead to information.
A Molotov cocktail, also known as a petrol bomb, is an improvised incendiary weapon which explodes on impact.
The name came from Finnish soldiers during the Soviet-Finnish Winter War of 1939-1940.
After Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov denied that his country had bombed the Finnish capital Helsinki and claimed the Soviet air force was only delivering humanitarian aid, locals sarcastically referred to the bombs as “Molotov’s bread baskets”.
As the Finns used petrol bombs to attack Soviet tanks and forces, they came up with the name Molotov cocktail.
Despite their staunch resistance resulting in heavy losses for the invading Soviets, the Finns eventually had to sue for peace, losing the region of Karelia and their second-largest city of Viipuri (now called Vyborg) to the Soviet Union.
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