Police shoot Groningen resident while collecting legal firearm

The police shot a 44-year-old man in his home on Tussen beide Markten street in Groningen when officers went to collect his legal firearm on Wednesday, the Groningen police said on Twitter. The man was taken to hospital with unknown injuries.

According to the police, the man's legal firearm was to be confiscated because he was recently involved in a fight. "Inside the home a situation arose in which officers felt it necessary to shoot", the police said. 

The police would say nothing further about the fight that led to the man's firearm being confiscated. But witnesses told NOS that the man threatened his girlfriend with the firearm after he kicked her out of the house. Tussen beide Markten is located between Grote Markt and Vismarkt, in the heart of Groningen.

The Rijksrecherche, the department that handles internal investigations at government services like the police, is investigating the shooting. This is standard procedure in all incidents in which a police officer fires his or her firearm.