NOS News•today, 11:58
In Alkmaar, the police have been allowed to preventively search people at four places in the city since this morning. The areas have been designated by the mayor as safety risk areas. This has to do with AZ’s football match against the Turkish Fenerbahçe, tonight in the AFAS Stadium.
The areas where the extra safety measures apply are around the stadium, the city center, Alkmaar station and the Olympiaweg event area. The measures apply between 9 a.m. and 1 a.m.
In making the decision, Mayor Schouten points to previous home games of AZ, where things also became restless. She also points to the disturbances that arose around Fenerbahçe’s match against FC Twente a month ago. According to the mayor, it is likely that Fenerbahçe fans had heavy fireworks with them at the time. The municipality expects about a thousand Fenerbahçe fans at the match tonight.
Restless in Amsterdam
It was already restless in Amsterdam last night, according to the police possibly because of Ajax’s home match against the Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv and that of AZ against Fenerbahçe.
A Palestinian flag was pulled from a facade on Rokin by “persons unknown at this time,” police say. Officers intervened on Max Euweplein because a group of taxi drivers and a group of visitors to a casino were seeking confrontation with each other. Police say football fans were present in the casino. No one has been arrested.
Because of the match in Amsterdam, Mayor Halsema has also decided to allow the police to carry out preventive searches in certain areas of the city. This concerns Dam Square, the Red Light District, Amsterdam Central Station and the area around the Johan Cruijff Arena.
