Police arrest 34 after deadly shooting in Gelderland village

One man has died and two police officers were injured in a suspected gang-related shooting in Overasselt, a village in Gelderland, in the early hours of Tuesday. Police have arrested 34 people and say the attack stemmed from a “long-running conflict.”

At an afternoon press conference, the deputy head of the police’s eastern Netherlands unit, Jolanda Aalbers, said the man who died was 51 and came from the nearby town of Wijchen. He is reported to have been a security guard hired to protect the property that was targeted.

The two officers, who were first on the scene, were given first aid by colleagues “while they were under fire,” Aalbers said. Both are now out of danger. Weapons and vehicles have been seized, and the 34 people arrested include French, Belgian, Algerian and Dutch nationals, according to the public prosecution department.

They are being questioned on suspicion of involvement in murder, manslaughter and attempted manslaughter.

Heumen mayor Joerie Minses urged residents of Overasselt and neighbouring Nederasselt to follow police instructions and stay indoors where possible. Justice minister David van Weel described the events as “horrific”.

Unverified images shared by the Telegraaf show a group of at least 30 masked men – some carrying what appear to be automatic rifles – outside a property. NOS, which reviewed later security footage, said it appeared to show an execution: an armed group approaches a parked car with its interior light on, and one person opens fire before most of the group runs off.

Officers were first called to the Ewijkseweg in the village at around 4am, and a specialist ambulance team whose staff wear bulletproof vests was sent from Amsterdam after reports of automatic gunfire, according to NOS. The team is deployed only in cases of extreme violence.

Police and prosecutors declined to confirm reports linking the attack to fugitive drug lord Jos Leijdekkers, known as Bolle Jos, or to a missing cocaine shipment. Het Parool, citing sources, reported that the dispute concerned a consignment of more than 800 kilos of cocaine seized on August 29 at the Spanish-French border, part of which may have reached the Netherlands.

Prosecutors said the property was also shot at last year. According to police, a man in his twenties from Amsterdam fired 25 rounds from a Kalashnikov in July 2025 and left behind photographs as a warning. He said he had been promised €2,500 but never revealed who paid him, and was sentenced to a year in juvenile detention; his driver was given 10 months.

One of the residents of the property was this year sentenced to four years in prison for a “coordinating role” in an MDMA lab in the Gelderland village of Angeren, which was shut down in 2021. He denies involvement.

A large-scale police operation continued through the day in and around Overasselt, with helicopters, dogs and arrest teams searching the area. Several of those detained were found hiding in bushes, and a reporter from broadcaster Powned said three “young boys,” some barefoot, were caught about 2km from the village after a passer-by alerted police.

Further arrests were made on the A73 and A76 motorways, which police confirmed are connected to the investigation. Armed officers also searched a train at Nijmegen station; three men who asked for directions in French at a nearby ROC vocational college were later detained, though police have not confirmed a link to Overasselt.