Police have uncovered an unknown number of weapons, including at least one Kalashnikov rifle which had been buried in an Utrecht park, the Telegraaf said on Monday.

The hiding place was found following a tip-off to television crime show Crime Desk, and may be linked to gangs run by Dutch Moroccan criminals. The park is located in the Kanaleneiland district of the city, where many supporters of gang leader Ridouan Taghi live, the paper said.

The guns were uncovered on Thursday in a major operation involving explosives experts and metal detectors, to alert police to any potential booby traps. The Telegraaf said it knows how many guns were seized, but that the information is being kept secret in the interests of the investigation.

Utrecht mayor Sharon Dijksma is due to brief city officials on the find on Monday morning.

‘On the one hand I am shocked that so many of this type of weapon have been found, but on the other I am glad they have been removed from the street,’ she said.

Dijksma said when she was sworn in as mayor toward the end of last year that fighting organized crime would be one of her top priorities.

It is not the first time weapons have been found buried in the park, the Telegraaf said. In 2018 a man with a metal detector came across an AK47 and silencers which had been buried there.