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The armed Jurgen Conings had long been on the radar of the OCAD, the Coordination Body for Threat Analysis. Now there are very concrete indications of dangerous plans and of immediate danger; hence the highest threat level. The general threat level remains ‘average’, says the Belgian counterpart of the NCTV.
Conings itself is highly flammable. Some of his weapons have been found, but he would still be carrying a P-90, a rifle, of which he had taken 2000 bullets on Monday, sources report to Het Nieuwsblad. How much he still carries is not known, but “the arsenal of weapons in his possession is enough for a small war,” it sounds.
Reporting
The police have issued a description of Conings (bald, long, muscular and several tattoos) and have been distributing his photo since Wednesday afternoon. Do not contact him yourself, the police warns.
Great search
The Belgian police searched Tuesday night in the Dilserbos in Dilsen-Stokkem, half an hour by bike from the Dutch border, near Nattenhoven in Limburg. The Hoge Kempen nature reserve also begins right next to the town. All residents were asked to stay indoors for their own safety and not to leave their homes. A helicopter circled the area. Later in the day, part of the Hoge Kempen National Park was also cordoned off. The vast area, between Genk and Maasmechelen on the Dutch border, is closed to visitors.
A forester has found the car of the wanted Jurgen Conings in Dilsen. The authorities have had this Audi Q5 towed away.
Dennie Bonnet lives on the edge of the forest where the car was found, and suddenly saw special forces arriving. “I just came back from running when they arrived. Fully packed, with weapons. They also went into the woods with police dogs. At least 25 or 30 men. There was also an armored car, with a kind of cage around it. Really heavy equipment. ”
‘Weapons in the car’
He heard what was said from his house. “The ranger told the units that he had found the car, with all those weapons. He saw cables, wires. After that they spent more than two hours with that car. ” Justice confirms in Belgian media that the heaviest weapons have been found in the car.
The area where the soldier (inset on the right) would hide.
Ⓒ The Telegraph
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The security services searched very early until Wednesday morning, but found nothing. Wednesday did not indicate a major search. For a long time, no agents or searches could be seen in the area itself, although a helicopter could be heard around 1 p.m., reporter Marcel Vink noted.
Conings’s girlfriend had raised the alarm Monday evening. It was then revealed that Conings had stolen heavy weapons including a rocket launcher from his own barracks. In a farewell letter he explained that he could no longer live in a ‘society ruled by politicians and virologists’. On Tuesday, virologist Marc Van Ranst had to be brought to safety with his family. Van Ranst was previously threatened on the internet by Conings, who has close ties with an ex-military and convicted neo-Nazi, one Tomas Boutens, who immediately supported Conings on Facebook on Tuesday evening.
Images of the search with masked officers in the Dilserbos in Dilsen-Stokkem.
Ⓒ Dutch Height / ANP
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According to Het Nieuwsblad, Conings had a rocket launcher, a submachine gun and a regular pistol. The rocket launcher was found in his car.
Wandering track?
On Wednesday around ten o’clock in the morning it will be quiet at the place where the car was found. The area has not been cordoned off, and Bonnet hopes Conings is no longer in the area by now. “You have a youth camp here in the woods, but also an orphanage. You can hide fine here, but is he still here? It can also be a wrong track. ”
“Let’s hope it ends well,” said Dennie Bonnet.
Ⓒ The Telegraph
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He knows Conings, who comes from Dilsen-Stokkem, personally. “Not very good, but of face. From football too. That people can get so extreme in their ideas … Let’s hope it ends well. But because an ambulance had also driven in, they probably take everything into account. ”
Dutch police
The police in Limburg is alert, but currently has no role in the case of the fugitive Belgian soldier who threatened virologists. When asked, a spokesman for the Limburg corps said this.
“We have not been actively involved in this action so far. The Belgian police are leading the investigation, ”said the spokesman. According to him, there is no information to suspect that the Belgian suspect may cross the border. “But we are alert and monitor developments.”
The spokesperson does not want to make any further statements about what this extra alertness and monitoring will look like in order not to provide the suspect with possibly unintentional information. “We maintain contact with our Belgian colleagues”, is the only thing he wants to say more about it.
Van Ranst
That well-known virologist Van Ranst responded in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday in a Twitter message. “Being against covid measures and covid vaccines all too often coincides with the cult of violence and raw racism,” writes Van Ranst. “Let one thing be clear: such threats do not make the slightest impression on me.”
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