A Gunman Took Hostages At An Amsterdam Apple Store & One 'Heroic' Hostage Saved The Day

A U.K. man is being praised as a hero in the Netherlands, after he took a risk that helped police end an hours-long hostage situation.

The guy was one of several hostages held at an Apple store in Amsterdam on Tuesday, after a gunman allegedly took over the store and demanded a massive ransom from police.

A five-hour hostage ensued, and it only came to an end because the British hostage made a run for it while the suspect was drinking water, reported BBC.

Amsterdam's chief of police, Frank Paauw, described it as a "kind of heroic" move that drew the gunman out into the open.

"He acted in a split second. Had he not done that, we could have been in for a long, nasty night," Paauw said at a news conference, according to the BBC.

The suspect ran out into the street after the hostage and police hit him with a car, video shows. The suspect was seriously injured but there were no deaths after the siege, police said.

The whole thing played out Tuesday evening in Amsterdam, where police kept updating the public via their Twitter account. They constantly reminded people to avoid the area due to imminent danger and told them not post videos or live streams of the hostage situations out of safety concerns.

Still, there were several witness videos being shared on social media throughout the siege.

Police later said via a news release that the gunman seemed to have been following the siege on social media.

Authorities said at a press conference that the suspect fired at them when they first showed up, and that he "may have been wearing a bomb vest." He allegedly sent photos of the vest to a local news station.

About 70 people in the building were rescued by the police after the situation ended. Four of them had been hiding in a closet throughout the ordeal.

The 27-year-old suspect was arrested at the scene and an investigation is ongoing.