Car attempts to ram bus carrying Dutch Queen & family

I'm not a royalist - don't support these outmoded institutions, but Beatrix is pretty harmless (although less progressive than her forebears).

Notice how fit the Dutch police look? You can imagine if these were American cops, barely able to waddle over to help the injured.

We were cheering and singing when the royal family passed by, they all seemed to be enjoying the day, just like we were. Within 30 seconds we heard a loud bang and saw a policeofficer performing CPR. We were standing at about 50 meters distance, and I'm actually grateful that we didn't see all those people flying in the air when the car hit them. Apeldoorn became very, very quiet.

Wandadig has contributed a photo to this story.

All speculation at this point...

As a major shareholder in Shell, the company that maintains the kleptocracy in Nigeria over its impoverished people, I wouldn't call Beatrice harmless (sorry gerrypopplestone). And when I lived in The Netherlands it was commonly understood that Beatrice is a real Queen b1tch money grabber. But if the guy had a beef with her he should've started a protest web page not a ram-attack. No excuse for any violence there...

So, I just can't see someone killing a bunch of innocent people to get to her. It seems outlandish. Moreover, if it was deliberate, the fact he used a Suzuki proves he's mad. It's the one Japanese made car I'd be embarrassed (and nervous) to travel in. Concertina's have better folding resistance. Would one think there's a possibility he had some sort of seizure or heart attack(?) If you want to hit a bus, wouldn't you go out and rent something sturdier for the day (with full insurance).

I am Dutch and it is definitely not commonly understoond that BeatriX is a 'i- don't- want-to-type-that money grabber'. Anyway, the guy was having a lot of problems, he got fired recently and couldn't pay the rent. He worked at a security company, it was probably his own fault he got fired, the security business isn't exactly suffering from the economic crisis. He probably was very frustrated and mad.

Update: 5 persons were killed: 3 men, 2 women. Severely injured are 5 men, 4 women and 3 children, all suffering skull and/or braininjury. One of the severely injured is a member of the marechaussee, a special division of the police (sort of military). Among the mildly injured (bone fractures etc) is a policeofficer. 

The car looks to have been seriously damaged by the time it appears on camera, is that from hitting people?  I'm so sorry to all the folks of Holland as well as Appledoorn for this experience.  It's a terrible thing.  I'll have to check with relatives to see if anyone in my family were there, although I think they all live other places.

Apeldoorn is near the site of a monument to Operation Manna,  unveiled a few years ago to commemorate the Allies food relief mission that saved millions of Dutch lives near the end of WWII. Operation Manna began on April 29, 1945 and ended May 7, 1945. I did a story about the mission a few days ago... http://my.nowpublic.com/world/food-heaven-saved-millions-dutch-0

My heart goes out to the people of Holland after this terrible incident. 

There is a monument right across 'De Naald' (the needle, the monument that the car crashed into). It's the National Monument dedicated to the Canadians that freed us from the Germans. There's a twin monument in Ottawa. It is also a symbol of friendship between Canada and the Netherlands. Apeldoorn is about 90 km from Amsterdam and therefore in the east of the country (yes, we're a small country :) ), it didn't suffer in the cold 'hungerwinter' like the west of the country, and was freed at 17 April 1945 (by the Canadians).

@Anarkissed: The car drove through 2 barriers and the people standing there. It was probably the reason that the car was already damaged when it hit 'De Naald'. And also the reason that it didn't hit the royal bus, which he intended to hit.

Update: The driver is dead.

Could it be that this was actually an accident? People have been know to lose control of their cars before and further he or she could have had a heard attack or a malaise.

No, he admitted right after he crashed that he was trying to hit the royal bus. Besides, the road was blocked, no reason for any car to be driving on that road, you couldn't go anywhere. He was a madman!

The 6th victim died this afternoon (it's 5 p.m. now in Holland). The deceased is the marechaussee I wrote about earlier.

Mudricky I arrived in Amsterdam yesterday to this dreadful and sad news.The dutch people who I have spoken to here say the 32 yrs old man driving the car has lost his job and felt agrieved about the Dutch system.He seemingly did this as a protest.sadly a 8yrs old girl was in among the dead.