Man shot dead in Zaandam as schoolchildren play nearby

A shooting incident on J. Kruijverstraat in Zaandam on Tuesday afternoon has left one person dead. The police are looking for a brown minivan believed to have been involved in the shooting. The shooting happened near two primary schools and several children saw it happen. A local resident told NOS that he heard 10 to 15 shots on J Kruijverstraat. Witnesses told the Noordhollands Dagblad that 5 men fired on the victim with machine guns from a van. Authorities called a Grip 2 alarm at the scene just before 1:30 pm. That establishes a team leader to coordinate all emergency services responding from an incident command post. The mayor is notified and both municipal and regional teams assemble to provide assistance and support as needed. The fire department's regional commander, the district police chief and public health director are also notified. So far nothing is known about the victim and the motive for the shooting. The police are calling on witnesses to make contact with them at once. This is the second shooting incident to have impact on Zaandam in three weeks. On May 13th, 25 year old Zaandam resident Youssef El Kahtaoui was shot and killed on De Clercqstraat in Amsterdam West. The police believe that he was not the intended target of the attack.