Shots ring out

THE HAGUE, Netherlands _ The early afternoon calm of The Hague's historic Zuidwal canal was shattered Wednesday when a mob-style shoot-out erupted leaving two men hospitalised with gun shot wounds and my bike temporarily impounded by police when I went to check it out.
I was on the phone when I heard four bangs in rapid succession that were pretty obviously (based among other things on the sound and the crappiness of our neighborhood, number of drug dealers/pimps/general hoodlums who hang out here) gun shots.
I wandered down to the street a few minutes later and found one man sitting calmly in a hairdressing salon talking on his mobile as blood poured pretty liberally out of his leg. Another injured man was sitting on the other side of the canal. A third man, apparently also injured in an unspecified way, had done a runner. Pretty soon afterwards a police helicopter began circling overhead as police started rounding up witnesses and refused to give me back my bike which I'd parked behind their Do-Not-Cross-This-Line tape while I also interviewed witnesses.
It was soon obvious that the shooting was not terrorism related so my interest waned and I headed off to a press conference at parliament.
When I got back an hour later our road was still closed off, the helicopter was still in the air and the police appeared none the wiser as to what had happened.
In the meantime, Irmie had arrived home with the girls who were pretty entertained by the whole thing.
I used to think this city was dull ...