Shots fired when van in suspicious Amsterdam incident leads police chase to Bilthoven

The police fired warning shots and arrested several people on the A27 highway near Bilthoven on Tuesday morning. The situation developed after the van led authorities on a chase from the De Pijp neighborhood in Amsterdam. Police had only released limited information about the incident by the early afternoon.

At around 9 a.m., the police sent a notification on Burgernet asking Amsterdam residents to be on the lookout for a white delivery van due to a suspicious situation in De Pijp. The van was spotted on the A27 a short time later, and the police gave chase, according to AT5.

At around 9:30 a.m., the police arrested the people in the van on the highway. A spokesperson for the police told the Amsterdam broadcaster that the van pulled over after the police fired warning shots.

"We were driving on the highway and suddenly a lot of police cars passed by. There was also a motorcycle police officer and several undercover cars," a witness told RTV Utrecht. The lanes of the highway were then quickly closed, as police tried to detain the suspects.

The A27 highway towards Utrecht was closed for some time due to the police action, according to Rijkswaterstaat. One lane was opened back up at about 10 a.m., and the rest were reopened over an hour later.