Antwerp

Antwerp is the first city on the locations list. We’re going to apply the Ken Hite™️ method: look it up on Wikipedia then make it seem a bit sinister and weird. Who knows, vampires might be running the place.

Here is the Tyco Security Products briefing module:

FROM: +++++ CENTRE ++++

TO: +++++ FIELD +++

LOCATION: + ANTWERP +++

Antwerp is a major port on the River Scheldt in Belgium. Its population of 520,000 makes it the largest city in Belgium; 55% of the population has a migrant background. Antwerp is the centre of the world diamond trade.

Antwerp International Airport is a small hub: Belgium’s main airport is Brussels. The airport is only 4km south of the city.

There is a threat of ‘lone wolf’ car attacks in the city of Antwerp. The port of Antwerp to the north of the city runs regular ‘disaster exercises’. Combinations for a hypothetical disaster have included eco-anarchists trying to break into various buildings, the kidnapping of a Saudi sheikh visiting the port along with a VIP retinue, a gunfight, a hijacking, a threatened collision with an ammonia tanker, and a violent incident onboard a ship.

There are two intelligence and security services in Belgium: State Security (VSSE), the civil intelligence service, and the General Intelligence and Security Service (ADIV), its military counterpart. The counter-terrorism police are the DSU. They have both central and regional units. The relevant unit for Antwerp is POSA Antwerpen. Lokale Politie Antwerpen is the city force.

There is a 180 map and city guide:

Antwerp

MAS is Antwerp’s museum of itself as a world metroplis: it opened in 2011. The 60-metre-high MAS is an example of postmodern Art Deco architecture. The façade is made of Indian red sandstone and curved glass panel construction. The storage areas contain much exotic and looted material.

The Red Star Line Museum comprises two elements. The old port warehouses that were used for passengers’ administrative and medical checks. A modernist observation tower rises above the warehouses, in the shape of a ship’s smokestack and affords a panoramic view of the city and port. Its purpose is to heritage-wash Belgium’s reputation on refugees.

Until 2016, the late nineteenth-century Loodswezen housed the Maritime Inspectorate and the Pilotage Service for the River Scheldt. It is now an exhibition space.

The Boerentoren is Antwerp’s most notable Art Deco building, the 26-floor ninety-six metre high skyscraper opened in 1932 and remained the city’s tallest until 2019. Its roof is an important hub for communications masts.

Sint-Jansplein is one of the largest squares in the city. Despite attempts at regeneration it is mainly a centre for the drugs trade.

Park Spoor Noord is a very large, modern, nasty park built over the former railway marshalling yards.

The Sportpaleis is Antwerp’s event centre, built in 1933. Next to it is the eight-thousand-seater Lotto Arena opened in 2007, where the city’s professional basketball club, the Antwerp Giants, play their home games.

The Stadhuis is the magnificent sixteenth-century city hall that occupies the west side of the Grote Markt, the largest square in the city.

Exotische Markt sells produce from Africa and Latin America.

Stadspark is a thirty-five acre, historic triangular park abutting the Central Station and the Jewish district of the city.

Antwerpen-Centraal is the main railway station. The much modernised late nineteenth-century building is a stop on the Brussels-Amsterdam high-speed line.

The Nieuw Gerechtshof, a modernist building opened in 2006, contains eight law courts and the Public Prosecutor’s office.

Berchem is the station for southern Antwerp, the shuttle from the airport terminates there.

The Nachtegalen is a series of large parks created by the municipality of Antwerp from aristocratic estates in 1910. The generally pleasant parks contain the Atlantic Wall & Air War Museum.

Let’s see what trouble Ultimate B*llocks can cause: “We have saved you, Antwerp” …