Four parcel bombs were found in the Netherlands in two days, and the blackmailer demanded payment in Bitcoin

According to Fox News on the 14th, four parcel bombs were found across the Netherlands within two days. Police said this was the latest round of threats from blackmailers demanding payment in the form of Bitcoin.

A parcel bomb exploded at the headquarters of Dutch bank ING on Thursday after an employee opened a letter in his office, local media reported. Police said one person was treated for smoke inhalation but no one was seriously injured.

Separately, Reuters reported that an explosive was found inside a package at the offices of U.S. information technology company Unisys early Thursday. (Unisys is located in the town of Lesden, outside the Dutch city of Utrecht, about 30 miles southeast of Amsterdam.)

The first mail bomb found this week exploded at around 8 a.m. local time Wednesday at a ABN AMRO mail sorting office in Amsterdam. Police said the employee heard a hissing sound coming from the package and threw it into a trash can. Moments later, the package exploded. No one was injured.

Less than an hour later, a parcel bomb exploded at the office of Ricoh, a Japanese maker of business and optical machines, in the Dutch town of Kerkrade, about 140 miles from the German border, and no one was injured, the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported.

According to police, both explosions were small, about the size of small fireworks. No arrests have been made in the investigation, according to the Associated Press.

Also on Wednesday, local police in the city of Maastricht responded to a call about a suspected parcel bomb at the ABN Amro branch in the south of the city. They found no explosives, but a computer mouse inside the package, Al Jazeera reported.

Amsterdam police said in a statement they speculated the latest mail room explosion may be linked to a series of parcel bombs and threatening letters sent to several businesses last month.

Since January 3, a series of similar parcel bombs have been received in various parts of the Netherlands, including a hotel, a gas station, a garage, a real estate agency and a payment service agency. According to Al Jazeera, all bombs were removed before the explosion. There were threatening letters on the explosives demanding payment in the form of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, and the authorities have not yet disclosed the amount involved.