Four Amsterdam men found themselves hemmed in by Belgian police and arrested earlier this month because they followed the same route from the Dutch capital to Antwerp as princess Amalia in their rental car.

The four, including radio DJ Serginio Piqué, were held at gunpoint on an Antwerp street. The incident took place on August 2 but Piqué has only now told reporters about what happened via his lawyer Vito Shukrula.

Footage of the arrest on social media shows how Piqué and his friends were ordered out of their car and made to kneel. They were then handcuffed and taken to a police station for questioning.

During their interrogation, they were told that they had taken exactly the same motorway exits as Amalia and that the Belgian police had been alerted by the Dutch authorities.

“There are few logical routes from Amsterdam to Antwerp,” Shukrula said. “They took the most logical route from the Singel which their navigation system gave them.”

It is unclear how close their car was to Amalia, but the Amsterdammers say they fear ethnic profiling may have played a role in the police decision to track them.

The four were eventually released by the Belgian authorities. “It was a situation involving the crown princess and we had to take it seriously,” a Belgian police spokesman told broadcaster NOS. “We had a proper reason to carry out checks in this way.”

Shukrula said the tip came from the special police service DKDB which is in charge of the royals’ security. He also said he hoped the family would come up with some sort of apology or recognition for his clients and had not ruled out legal action.

In October 2022, Amalia was reportedly the target of threats from organised crime and was forced to return to her family home from her student flat in the Dutch capital. She also spent a period living in Spain.