AMSTERDAM—Three European IKEA stores -- one each in the Netherlands, France and Belgium -- were hit overnight by firework attacks, the company, police and local media said Tuesday.
No serious injuries were reported and most stores are reopening as scheduled on Tuesday.
Police in Son en Breugel, near Eindhoven, Netherlands, said Tuesday an explosion destroyed a trash can shortly before the store was due to close Monday. A suspicious package was destroyed but it turned out not to have been an explosive.
In Ghent, newspaper De Standaard cited police spokesman Steven DeSmet as saying there were two explosions inside the store around 6 p.m. Around 250 people were evacuated to a nearby hotel. The paper quoted eyewitnesses comparing the explosions to large firecrackers. An employee and a security guard complained of minor ear injuries as a result of the noise.
Police and IKEA in Lomme, near Lille, France, could not immediately be reached to comment on the incident there.
IKEA spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson in Helsingborg, Sweden, said Monday's explosions were all caused by "small firework devices." She adds that IKEA has received no threats in connection with the incidents.
Dutch IKEA stores have a history of receiving bomb threats. In 2009, Amsterdam's store was evacuated and closed for a day after an anonymous tip that Islamic radicals had planted bombs there. The tip led to seven arrests in various locations, but there was no bomb and the tipster turned out to be someone with a private gripe against the suspects.
In 2002, explosives were actually planted at several Dutch stores as part of a blackmail attempt, and two policemen were injured when one exploded.
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