Man dies while fleeing from the police

A man died while trying to flee from the police in the Friesland village of Nieuwhorne on Thursday morning. What exactly happened is not yet clear.

According to Omrop Fryslan, the police responded to an emergency call about a man needing immediately aid at around 10:00 a.m. The Telegraaf reports that the police responded to a report of a car accident.

At the scene, a motorist sped away at high speed. A police officer was injured, both news sources report. The police shot at the speeding car, which came to a standstill against a farm and caught fire. The man inside turned out to be critically injured. He died at the scene.

How the man was injured is not clear. It is not yet known whether he was hit by a police bullet.

The injured officer was taken to hospital.

"We see that different stories are going around about the incident in Nieuwhorne", the Friesland police said on Twitter. "At the moment there is still a lot of uncertainty and this is being investigated by the Noord-Nederland detectives. The shooting by police officers is investigated by the Rijksrecherche." The Rijksrecherche is the department that handles internal investigations at government services like the police.