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In the Limburg church village of Itteren, the carnival celebrations officially began at 12.11 p.m. with the hoisting of the so-called Vreigeleir, a doll that symbolizes the carnival association. The village of Maastricht hit the headlines last week when it was announced that the pastor of Itteren would refuse communion to the princess couple during the carnival mass on Sunday morning. In the end, this mass did not take place at all.
The bull that has been blocked in by high water on a peninsula at the Maas bij Itteren and refused to leave has been freed from his plight and sailed to shore. This happened on Friday afternoon mainly due to the efforts from employees of Free Nature, who anesthetized then dragged it onto a boat using a winch and then sailed it to the safe shore at Itteren (municipality of Maastricht). There, the animal, still unconscious, reached the mainland.
Emergency services workers found the remains of a driver who disappeared on Monday when he jumped into a pond off Stuifkensweg in Maastricht. The body of the 43-year-old man from Buchten was recovered on Tuesday. Rescuers had tried in vain to find him shortly after he went missing.
A motorist fleeing the police got his vehicle stuck in a meadow in Itteren, near Maastricht, on Monday morning. He then abandoned his car and jumped into a nearby fish pond. He was briefly spotted, but then disappeared under water. The emergency services brought a dive team in to search for the driver, but they had not found him as of Monday evening. The man was first spotted when he was driving the wrong-way on the A2 near Maastricht. The police tried to stop him, but they were unable to do so.