Suspected sabotage halts Dutch trains across 24 locations during rush hour

A major outage disrupted parts of the Dutch rail network early Tuesday, affecting thousands of passengers and leading to an investigation into possible sabotage. Prorail, the company that maintains rail infrastructure in the Netherlands, said material had been found at several places on the tracks and police were looking into the case.

The stoppages affected services mainly in the central and eastern parts of the country, while some trains in the busy western regions were also hit. National railway company NS said services around the central cities of Zwolle, Deventer and Amersfoort were badly affected during the morning rush hour, and told travellers that "It is not yet clear how long it will take for train services to return to normal."

Joke van der Cruysen, a spokesperson for Prorail, told The Associated Press that there were disruptions at 24 locations. "Material has been found at several locations. It appears that this material was deliberately placed on the tracks. We suspect sabotage," she said in a telephone interview.

Van der Cruysen said Prorail was working to clear all rails while handling material removed from the tracks carefully so that possible evidence was not compromised. "The police are currently involved and are actively investigating the cause and the reasons behind this," she said. "We wear gloves so that the police can eventually check for fingerprints and the like," she added. "And, of course, we try to get train traffic up and running again as soon as possible."

Police spokeswoman Marloes Wesselink confirmed that an investigation was underway, but declined to give further details. She said she was not aware of any claim of responsibility. There was no immediate indication of who might be behind the apparent sabotage.

The disruption came on the day the Dutch government was presenting its annual budget to parliament, an event that draws thousands of people to The Hague to watch the royal family ride through the city in horse-drawn carriages. Overall, the outage affected several parts of the network, disrupted the morning commute and remained under police investigation as efforts continued to restore services.