A large part of the RAI was evacuated for a long time this morning. This was due to a suspicious package found at the entrance of the building. Visitors to the canceled conference waited outside for a long time and couldn’t get theirs. Many international travelers were at risk of being left off their flights.
This morning, the police received a notification from RAI that a suspicious package had been found. “This signal was so serious that we took it seriously,” says Guido Oostrom, a spokesman for the Amsterdam police. Visitors to the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) conference were asked to exit the building in stages.
The three-day event had arrived on the last day, which meant that many conference-goers had stored their luggage at the RAI. The investigation took several hours, which meant that most of the conference’s international visitors were in danger of missing their flight: “The passport is in and my flight leaves in an hour!” says a concerned visitor. Not everyone got on the plane.
After an extensive investigation by the Defense Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), it was found that there was no explosive in the suitcase “It was a false alarm,” according to Guido.