Europe 1 with AFP 10:06 p.m., February 22, 2022
A hostage situation is currently underway at an Apple Store in central Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
According to the first elements of the investigation, it would be a lone man, who would have taken the employees hostage after a robbery with a failed robbery.
But the police refuse to communicate on the details and ask the inhabitants to avoid the zone.
A hostage-taking was underway Tuesday evening in Amsterdam in an Apple Store in which an armed man entered Tuesday evening in one of the main squares of the city, police said, adding that several people had been released.
"Since the beginning of the hostage taking in the Apple Store in Leidseplein, several people have been able to leave the store," the police said on Twitter, without specifying the number of people.
#Amsterdam
Taken hostage in the Apple store.
pic.twitter.com/pUKa0Sxj9E
— pi.expertises (@pi_expertises) February 22, 2022
Images filmed by Internet users circulated on social networks, showing in particular an armed man holding another unarmed man and according to the media AT5, several witnesses heard gunshots in the shop earlier in the evening.
Law enforcement is on site with numerous specialist units "to bring the situation under control", police said.
A robbery gone wrong
She had received a report of an armed robbery at 5:40 p.m.
This alleged robbery then turned into a hostage situation.
“We would ask anyone with a view of the Apple Store building to exercise restraint in posting images or live streams, due to the safety of those involved and our policing efforts,” police said.