"It was like watching a horror movie"
The driver was not named.
3:11pm UK, Thursday April 30, 2009 At least four people are reported to have been killed and around 13 hurt in The Netherlands after a car careered into spectators watching a royal motorcade.
A photographer said the small car appeared to be deliberately driving at high speed toward an open-top bus carrying Queen Beatrix and her family in the western Dutch town of Apeldoorn.
Cynthia Boll said she saw about 20 people "flying through the air" after the black Suzuki car swerved across police railings, where crowds of people were waiting to see the queen pass.
The car slammed into a monument. Video footage showed police removing a man from the vehicle and putting him into an ambulance.
Dutch television said two people were killed and about a dozen injured, including children.
Shortly after the incident, investigators and a sniffer dog examined the car for explosives, then sawed off the roof for a closer inspection.
People were lining railings five or six deep to see the royal family pass on its way to a palace. The motorcade was part of celebrations for the annual national holiday of Queen's Day.
Fred de Graaf, the Mayor of Apeldoorn - a town about 55 miles from Amsterdam - said all festivities were being cancelled.
"The scare and the images that the family has seen are reason to break off the official programme," he said.
Holiday events were also called off in the port city of Rotterdam, and more were likely to be cancelled around the country.
Hundreds of thousands of people flock to the main Dutch cities to celebrate the national holiday, originally intended to celebrate the birthday of Beatrix's mother Queen Juliana.
The royal family normally spends the day in a small Dutch community.
UPDATE: Dutch Wolf updates us: The name of the attacker is Karst Richard Tates, 38 years old from the city of Huissen in the province Gelderland.
