Group stops Amsterdam man flashing machine gun, knife

A 31-year-old man from Amsterdam was arrested for possession of a loaded machine gun on Thursday, according to the newswire ANP. The man took the gun out of his backpack alongside a group of people while standing on Bijlmerplein in Amsterdam Zuidoost. He quickly stuffed the weapon back in the bag, when someone from the group snatched the bag, alerted police, and tossed the backpack into the bushes. Once the police arrived on the scene, they saw the suspect brandishing a knife. When he spotted the officers, he decided to throw the knife into the bushes not far from the backpack. After detaining the suspect, the police found the backpack and the knife between trees in the shrubbery. The machine gun was inside the backpack, which police identified as a Skorpion-brand weapon.