Police investigate kidnap tip-offs

POLICE in the Netherlands were yesterday investigating several tips from the public about the abduction of Claudia Melchers, the daughter of one of the country's richest men.

Armed and masked men broke into Ms Melchers's home in the Old South section of Amsterdam on Monday night, bound and gagged a friend and seized the 37-year-old woman. Her two young children were not harmed. The motive for the abduction is as yet unknown.

Police said they received nine tips from the public after a TV plea late on Tuesday by Willem Woelders, the police commissioner, asking for information.

Ms Melchers, who runs a catering company from her home, is the daughter of Hans Melchers, owner of Melchemie Holland, which supplied chemicals to Iraq in the 1980s.