A Gunman Took Hostages At An Amsterdam Apple Store & One 'Heroic' Hostage Saved The Day
"He acted in a split second."
A man is being praised as a hero in the Netherlands after he took a risk that helped police end an hours-long hostage situation.
The man was held at gunpoint at an Apple store in Amsterdam on Tuesday after a gunman allegedly took over the store and demanded a massive ransom of €200 million (CA$290 million) in cryptocurrency.
A five-hour hostage situation ensued, and it only came to an end because one hostage made a run for it while the gunman asked for water, reported BBC.
Amsterdam's chief of police, Frank Paauw, described it as a "kind of heroic" move that drew the gunman out into the open.
"He acted in a split second. Had he not done that, we could have been in for a long, nasty night," Paauw said at a news conference, according to the BBC.
The suspect ran out into the street after the escaping hostage, and police hit him with a car, video shows. The suspect was seriously injured but any hostages involved were freed, police said.
The whole thing played out Tuesday evening in Amsterdam, where police kept updating the public via their Twitter account. They constantly reminded people to avoid the area due to imminent danger and told them not to post videos or live streams of the hostage situation out of safety concerns.
Still, there were several witness videos being shared on social media throughout the siege.
@rashi.agarwal.favier Wat gebeurt het? #dutchtiktok #tiktoknl #leidseplein #amsterdamlocal#livinginthenetherlands
Police later said via a news release that the gunman may have been following the siege on social media.
Authorities said at a press conference that the suspect had at least two guns and that he fired at them when they first showed up. He also "may have been wearing a bomb vest." He allegedly sent photos of the vest to a local news station.
About 70 people were ultimately rescued by the police from the five-story building, which houses the Apple store and several offices. Four of them had been hiding in a closet on the ground floor throughout the ordeal.
The 27-year-old suspect was arrested at the scene and an investigation is ongoing.