Dutch fete their queen under heavy police presence

Apr 30, 2010, 15:19 GMT

Amsterdam - The Netherlands marked the 30th anniversary of their queen's ascension to the throne on Friday, watched closely by an unprecedented contingent of security forces.

Snipers, bodyguards, experts with explosive-sniffing dogs and some 1,400 police officers were deployed on Queen's Day - exactly one year after Queen Beatrix was targeted in a deadly attack.

A day earlier, police in the provincial capital of Middelburg had arrested a 33-year-old for threatening the royal house, shortly after anonymous letters containing death threats against the royal family had emerged.

That didn't stop hundreds of thousands of Dutch people from honouring their monarch at parties throughout the country on Friday.

Beatrix, 72, inaugurated the festivities with a morning tour of the little town of Wemeldinge in the southern province of Zeeland, surrounded by security forces and accompanied by Crown Prince Willem- Alexander, princess Maxima and other family members.

A day earlier, Beatrix had unveiled a monument in Apeldoorn in memory of seven people killed in the 2009 Queen's Day attack.

At the time, a 38-year-old man had driven his vehicle into a procession, aiming at the bus in which the royal family were riding. He died after crashing his car into a monument near the bus.

Queen's Day is traditionally celebrated with lively parties featuring beer and bitter orange liqueur. Many participants also wear orange clothing, scarves or plastic crowns in honour of the royal House of Orange-Nassau.

Queen's Day is also likely to feature large piles of trash this year. Street cleaners and trash haulers were striking in Amsterdam, The Hague and other cities, despite attempts by the government to have the protest for more pay judicially blocked on the holiday.