Suspected Sabotage Disrupts Dutch Rail During Morning Rush Hour

A major outage disrupted rail services across parts of the Netherlands on Tuesday morning, with the company that maintains the country's rail infrastructure saying it was treating the cause as possible sabotage.

Prorail said materials had been deliberately placed on the tracks at several locations, leading to track-circuit failures. In a statement, the infrastructure manager described the situation as appearing to be a case of sabotage, but did not specify what had been found on the lines.

There was no immediate indication of who might be responsible.

National railway operator NS said services around the central cities of Zwolle, Deventer and Amersfoort were hit particularly hard as the morning rush hour got under way. The company told travellers it was not yet clear how long it would take for train services to return to normal.

The disruption came on the day the Dutch government was due to present its annual budget to parliament, an occasion that brings thousands of people to The Hague to watch the royal family travel through the city in horse-drawn carriages.