Rush hour shooting in Rotterdam and carjacking likely related: Police

Multiple shots were fired on Kreefstraat in Rotterdam, near the Alexandrium shopping center, on Tuesday morning. As far as is known, no one was hurt, the police said on Twitter. Shortly after the shooting, a car was hijacked a short distance away. The police assume that the two incidents are related.

Witnesses told Rijnmond.nl that someone opened fire on a black Range Rover from another car. A man and a woman were sitting in the Range Rover. One of them got out and shot at the other car, which drove away with three people inside.

The two people inside the Range Rover were taken into custody, police later said. Authorities told newspaper Telegraaf that it was clear the pair were shot at, but their role in the incident was under investigation.

The police received multiple reports of shots being fired in the vicinity of Poolsterplein at around 9:30 a.m. Two cars with bullet holes were found in the area.

Reporter Robert Bas told NOS that this looked like an attempted assassination on the two people in the Range Rover. "Shots were fired in a wild way", he said. "The bullets ended up dozens of meters away at a Zeeman shop and the McDonald's."

The three people that started the shooting incident abandoned their vehicle on Hoofdweg, according to Rijnmond.nl. "Shortly after the shooting, someone reported that his or her car was taken by someone else, a carjacking", a police spokesperson said to the news site. "And because both incidents happened so close together, we do not exclude the possibility that the cases are related." 

No one was injured in he carjacking. Witnesses told Rijnmond.nl that at least two men drove off in the hijacked car. They had an automatic weapone with them.

One witness was smoking at her car and walked into the store just before gunshots started flying. "At first I thought of fireworks, but fireworks are not that loud. I didn't think gunshots would be so loud", she said to Rijnmond.nl. Her car is parked next to the Range Rover that was shot at. "And I was smoking right behind that black car." 

The police closed down various crime scenes and are investigating what exactly happened. Investigators call on witnesses to come forward.