Police in the town of Doesburg in Gelderland are refusing to comment about the contents of a bag made safe by experts on Tuesday evening, broadcaster Nos reports.

The bag was thrown to the ground by a man riding a bike after police tried to block his passage and arrest him. They had become involved because of a neighbourhood dispute, Nos says.

The bag raised police suspicions and they called in explosives experts. Locals were not allowed to leave their homes for several hours while checks on the bag were carried out.

The black sports bag was later taken to a safe place and ‘something’ inside it was blown up, local broadcaster Omroep Gelderland says.

There were three controlled explosions, the broadcaster says.

Sources told Nos the man, who lives in the town, wanted to take a 14-month-old girl with him to Syria and had been threatening to do so on social media all week.

He had gone to the house where the girl, whom he claims is his daughter, lives, according to the man’s ex-father-in-law. ‘He wanted to blow up the bag and take the girl with him,’ the man told Omroep Gelderland. ‘He had a relationship with my daughter.’