Home Scandal and Gossip Why did Tarik Zahzah storm Dutch TV station NOS ? Anonymous hacker?

Why did Tarik Zahzah storm Dutch TV station NOS ? Anonymous hacker?

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Tarik Zahzah
Why did Tarik Zahzah storm one Dutch TV station?

Viewers were treated to spectacular scenes on Dutch TV station NOS Thursday night after Tarik Zahzah, a teenage gunman stormed the studios of the national broadcaster and demanded to be put on air.

NOS went off air for an hour after the Zahzah dressed in a black suit and tie, barged in carrying a silenced pistol, threatening a security guard whilst seizing control of the studio. 

As the surreal scene played out, cameras continued to roll, recording the moment police rushed into to disarm him.

According to a reporter from the broadcaster who spoke to the the gunman, who is thought to be a 19-year-old chemistry student, Tarik Zahzah had claimed to be a member of a hacker’s collective working for Dutch intelligence.

Media reports would tell that Zahzah unconfirmed reports is a student of chemistry at Delft University of Technology.

After the man’s arrest ended the hostage crisis at the NOS studios in Hilversum, 12 miles east of Amsterdam, footage of the dramatic arrest was then broadcast to the nation.

No-one was hurt and no shots were fired during the incident, which interrupted the NOS evening news broadcast.

Police said in a statement that the man demanded airtime and threatened that bombs would go off at several locations around the Netherlands if his demand was not met.

Since the episode, questions have been asked as to how the Dutch gunman was able to pass through security, which was increased after the attacks in Paris earlier this month. 

Footage aired on Dutch TV showed the man pacing in the studio with a black pistol behind his back.

He had intended to speak to the country on the most popular evening news broadcast, but was led to an empty studio by a quick-thinking security guard.

Tarik Zahzah

Nevertheless, cameras were recording as he paced back and forth in front of them. Speaking to a man off camera, the suspect said: ‘The things that are going to be said (pause) those are very large world affairs. We were hired by the security service.’

Before then saying, ‘This is taking too long’.

Shortly after, police arrived with their guns drawn, yelling, ‘Drop it! Drop it! And get on your knees!’ 

The interloper since identified as Tarik Zahzah according to social media lives in the central Dutch town of Pijnacker, near the university town Delft, officials said, declining to provide details.

They refused to comment on media reports that he was a student whose parents had recently died and that he was not on a watch list of Islamist militants.

Since his arrest, the young man has been questioned and could be charged with kidnapping, possession of a firearm and threatening people with a weapon, prosecutor Johan Bac told at a press conference.

Nevertheless Bac would express questions remained as to why the gunman had stormed the station and what he had hoped to achieve? 

Also making its way on the web was the below youtube video purportedly via Anonymous in tangent to Zahzah’s storming in where demands for an uprising is made against ‘state media propaganda operatives,’ which seek to coalesce society’s needs to the financial hegemony.

Tarik Zahzah

Concerned that the teen might be aligned with terrorist operatives, special forces would swept the building for explosives, finding nothing.

Told police spokesman Christine Scholts‘We are currently investigating who this man is and what he wants,’

Police would also affirm that they were looking into claims that Zahzah had accomplices around the country with explosives.

Reiterated Scholts: ‘He took the security guard hostage and said he wanted air time. If they didn’t give it to him, he said there would be bombs in different places in the Netherlands that would explode if he didn’t get time on TV,’

The threats were reportedly also contained in a letter that the man took to the studio, a purported copy of which was aired by the RTL news channel.

‘Realise that I am not on my own,’ it said. ‘Furthermore, eight high explosives have been planted that contain radioactive material.

‘If you don’t take me to studio 8 to make my broadcast, we will be forced to step into action.’

The authenticity of the letter could not be confirmed.

Several fellow students have been speaking about ZahZah in the Dutch media. One describes him as a ‘quiet intelligent boy’. Another said he had not been seen for around four weeks.

NOS produces the most widely watched television newscast in the Netherlands and is based in the main national broadcast park in Hilversum.

After the alarm was raised police quickly surrounded the building in Hilversum and evacuated staff, according to media reports. There were no reports of any shots being fired in the building.

The media park in Hilversum, home to many Dutch broadcasters, has been tightly guarded for years, since populist Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was gunned down in a car park there in 2002.

Tarik Zahzah

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