Police hunting gunman after fatal afternoon shooting in Apeldoorn

Police were urgently searching for a gunman who shot and killed a man in Apeldoorn on Thursday afternoon. The incident happened on Mauvestraat in the Orden neighborhood on the city's west side. There were no arrests announced in the immediate aftermath, and descriptions of any suspects involved were not released.

The first reports of gunshots were called in to emergency services just before 4:15 p.m. Records show police and paramedics were quickly dispatched to the scene, followed by a trauma team traveling by helicopter which was eventually recalled. "This concerns a fatal shooting incident in which a man died," police said.

Police officers could at the scene were wearing bulletproof vests, withnesses said. A police helicopter was also sent to the area. A privacy shield was set up around the front entrance of a home on Mauvestraat, and part of its garden.

“I had just gone shopping with my grandchildren. The moment I got out, two cars drove onto the street. The cars stopped exactly where I am. Two men get out of both cars and start fighting with each other,” one man told De Stentor. “Then someone pulls out a large bread knife. I grab him and say, 'Are you crazy or something?' The moment I held him, one walks back to the car, picks up a gun and shoots. The man went back to his car and drives away. Another person runs into my house, upstairs and also runs away through the back window. He was afraid that he was also going to be shot.”

“At such a moment you act. It happened in front of me," he continued.

One local resident added that she heard two dull thuds just before someone knocked at her door. "I heard someone shout, 'Call the ambulance! Call the ambulance!' Then I walked towards the scene and saw children running outside," she told the newspaper. It was the grandchildren of the man who tried to stop the violence.

"Two older people were working on someone lying in the bushes. I then sat inside with the children because they were very upset. Every now and then I looked at what was happening outside," she continued. "The police arrived quite quickly. From what I understand, this was preceded by an argument between people outside on the street. But I don't know exactly how it all happened. It's bizarre to experience this on your own street.”

Police said that anyone with information or images recorded in the area should contact them immediately to assist in the investigation.