The man who drove his car into a crowd of spectators in an attempt to attack the Dutch royal family had traces of cannabis but no alcohol in his blood, and died of brain damage suffered when he slammed the vehicle into a stone monument to the royal family, prosecutors said Saturday. Six bystanders were killed and 10 were injured when the driver burst through two police barricades into the festive crowd greeting the queen in the eastern town of Apeldoorn. Authorities said a full investigation of the attempted attack would be conducted by the national anti-terrorism coordinator. Police have refused to identify the assailant, but Dutch media said he was Karst Tates, a former security guard who lost his job and was about to lose his home because he could not afford the rent. Before falling unconscious, the man told one of the first policemen to reach his crumpled car that he had intended to attack the royal family, prosecutors said previously. The 38-year-old Dutchman died early Friday, about 15 hours after his car came within a few meters (yards) of barreling into an open bus carrying Queen Beatrix and fifteen other members of the royal family in a parade marking Queen's Day, the Dutch national holiday.
Although terrorism was not the suspected motive, the coordinator's office is responsible for the royal family's security. The public prosecutor's office said preliminary results of an autopsy on the man showed traces of cannabis, but the drug could have remained in the bloodstream for several weeks.
The Queen, Prince Willem-Alexander, his wife Princess Maxima, Princess Margriet and her husband Pieter van Vollenhoven visited the eight victims who remained in various hospitals across the country, Saturday. The incident was likely to lead to tighter security for the 71-year-old monarch and could prompt a review of her habit of greeting her subjects, especially on the annual April 30 national holiday, held on the birthday of the late Queen Juliana, Beatrix's mother.
The queen is due to appear in public Monday with her son and daughter-in-law for a memorial ceremony to World War II victims, and again at celebrations Tuesday marking the end of the Nazi occupation of Holland in 1945, Liberation Day. © GPD AP; Photos by © Dutch Photo Press, Patrick van Katwijk;
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