armed man in the process of dropping his weapon when confronted by police storming studio
Carrying a silenced pistol, a gunman who is also a member of a hacker collective attempted to disrupt Dutch public broadcasting news today in the city of Hilversum. Confronted by armed police he surrendered quickly with no shots fired. He also held a list of demands and said as he was arrested: "The things that are going to be said [pause] - those are very large world affairs. We were hired by the security service."
A gunman has been arrested in a studio of Dutch news broadcaster NOS after disrupting the main evening news, reportedly demanding airtime.
Staff were evacuated from the building in the Media Park in the central city of Hilversum.
The man, smartly dressed and carrying a long pistol, paced around a studio that appeared to be empty.
When armed police confronted him, he dropped the gun and was overpowered.
An reporter for NOS who spoke to the gunman said he had claimed to be from a "hackers collective".
Police quickly surrounded the NOS studios building, and those inside were evacuated from the premises in the central Dutch town of Hilversum, 20km (12miles) east of Amsterdam, the RTL press agency reported.
The broadcaster later reported on its website that the man had a pistol with a silencer and threatened a security guard, forcing him to take him upstairs to the editorial offices.
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
8:35 PM PT: The man, who has not yet been identified, claimed to be a member of a hacker's collective working for Dutch intelligence.
Police said in a statement that the man demanded airtime and threatened that bombs had been planted at several locations around the Netherlands and would be exploded if his demand was not met.
Apparently the BBC now reports that the gun was a fake
Former classmates of a teen who stormed the studios of Dutch national TV demanding airtime before being arrested described him on Friday as a "normal guy", but one fascinated by conspiracy theories.
"Clever, pleasant and a bit of a loner, but certainly not a crazy guy," one of the 19-year-old's former classmates at Delft Technical University told the daily Algemeen Dagblad.
Another former classmate told the NOS public broadcaster, where the drama played off, that the teen, seemingly normal, had a rich imagination and was "often in his own world."
"In recent years he was interested in conspiracy theories involving the Free Masons and a 'new world order'," the student said.
The man, a first-year student at Delft Technical University, forced his way into a studio at the NOS broadcaster's headquarters in the city of Hilversum Thursday evening waving what turned out to be a fake pistol and demanding airtime.