The hostage situation followed an armed robbery by a man wearing a balaclava. An eyewitness reported The Parool that around 5:30 p.m. a man walked out of the Apple Store. When he saw the police, he grabbed a person under his arm and held a gun to the person’s head. The person was then taken hostage. Images were shared on social media of a man in camouflage clothing with a firearm holding another man at gunpoint.
The square was evacuated shortly after the report, the police asked everyone in the area to stay indoors. The deployment of emergency services around the incident increased on Tuesday evening, vehicles drove in and out, with flashing lights and sirens. As a precaution, the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Service (EOD) was also deployed, a police spokesman told ANP news agency. Trams that normally call at Leidseplein have a different route, GVB reports on Twitter.
Dozens of people who were able to leave the Apple Store earlier in the evening have been received by agents. They were taken to a police station for a witness statement and aftercare, the Amsterdam police reported.
Multiple people signed up the Amsterdam channel AT5 heard shots. “I had to run for my life,” one of them told the station. “I was standing on the zebra crossing opposite the Apple Store. There, an employee panicked and ran outside with a walkie-talkie shouting ‘robbery’. At that moment the penny hadn’t dropped yet and I wanted to cross the zebra crossing opposite the entrance to the Apple Store. But then I heard gunshots inside.”
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Visitors to cafes around Leidseplein had to stay indoors, writes The Parool† Visitors to De Balie, right next to the Apple Store, were also not allowed to leave the building on the instruction of the police, because there was a risk of shooting, floor manager Dylan told the newspaper. “We went to a room in the back, away from the windows.” Around 6.30 pm the group (‘about seventy men’ according to Dylan) was evacuated by the police. “Suddenly a screaming officer was standing in front of the window, we were taken to the Museumplein via Max Euweplein. It’s like a video game with all the armed cops outside,” one of the visitors tells Het Parool.
The evening program in De Balie, which, according to program maker Tim Wagemakers, would attract about 150 people, was cancelled. A performance scheduled at the nearby DeLaMar theater was also cancelled. The International Theater Amsterdam, in the Stadsschouwburg, also kept its doors closed.
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