A gunman takes one hostage in the Amsterdam Apple store: Police

A gunman takes one hostage in the Amsterdam Apple store: Police. 

Amsterdam: Dutch police announced Tuesday that they dispatched special units to a central plaza in Amsterdam because a man carrying guns took one or two people hostage in an Apple store in the area.

A few video clips available on AT5’s website show someone being held in-store by a gun.

“There is a person with a firearm in the store … police forces are there with many units and specialist units at the scene to get the situation under control,” Amsterdam police tweeted.

“We are restricting information about the situation in the Apple Store … in order not to upset our investigation and efforts there,” they stated. They later confirmed that it was a hostage-taking, but no details on how many hostages there were.

The square was cleared by police and asked residents to stay in the house and not venture out to observe.

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Apple store is located in Amsterdam. Apple store is situated near the fashionable Leidseplein, a square on the southern end of Amsterdam’s center.

The Netherlands’ biggest city witnessed a series of four violent robberies at mobile phone shops in 2021. 

The robberies prompted certain retailers to take out most of their phones and equipment as they were being targeted. The thefts had never occurred in the city’s center.

Violence with guns isn’t unusual in the Netherlands Hostage-takings are very rare.

In 2015, a person armed with a gun smashed into the TV studio to demand screen time. 

Nobody was hurt, and the shooter was later found to take hostages.

In 2002, an attacker took hostages from an office building that he mistakenly thought was part of Philips Electronics. 

The gunman killed himself and did not inflict harm on any of the people he took hostage.