Schiedam police shoot man with ax
The police shot a 26-year-old man in the leg in Schiedam on Wednesday. He was standing on an apartment balcony, waving an ax. According to witnesses, he also shouted 'Allahu akbar", ANP reports.
Police officers responded to the apartment building on Van den Tempelstraat around 1:30 p.m. after reports of the ax waving man. A SWAT team forced their way into the apartment after multiple failed attempts to calm the man down. The man attacked the SWAT team, also critically injuring a police dog. The officers tried to subdue him with a taser, but when this was unsuccessful, one officer shot him in the leg. The police dog died of its injuries.
The suspect was taken to hospital. The police are currently checking their systems to see if anything more is known about the man.
According to Schiedam mayor Cor Lamers the man is a Syrian whose been living with his father in Schiedam since last year. "It is serious that this happened in a residential area", he said, according to the news wire. "Although the situation took place in a home, bystanders did see what was happening. I can imagine that it was frightening." He added that he understands that people want to know what was going on there. "The man was known too different aid organizations. However, this is an escalation that we did not see coming. In the coming period, we will be conducting a full investigation into what happened."
