Two men have been arrested in connection with two shootings in Alpen aan den Rijn in which private homes close to the town centre were shot at, leaving bullet holes in windows and a front door.

The shootings took place on the Prins Hendrikstraat on Thursday afternoon and the arrests were made later in the evening. The two men were in a car and were  carrying a semi-automatic weapon.

Dozens of passersby witnessed the shooting, said to have been carried out by a man dressed in black. “It was broad daylight,” one eyewitness told the AD.

“The shooter looked me straight in the eye,” said Joy, who had been picking up groceries. “And then he shot again. I ran back towards my work as quickly as I could.”

The AD said police had searched a private home in the same street earlier this week in connection with an investigation into drugs smuggling and money laundering. They could not say if there was a link between that search and Thursday’s shooting.