Residents roused by sound of police sirens

Only a handful of residents of the quiet middle-class street in Amsterdam heard the five or six gunshots that claimed the life…

Only a handful of residents of the quiet middle-class street in Amsterdam heard the five or six gunshots that claimed the life of Derek Dunne, one of Dublin's most notorious heroin dealers, and wounded two other men in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The first sign of trouble for most people came when they were roused from their beds as police cars blocked off both ends of the street, which is situated off the main road in the west of the city.

Eyewitnesses described seeing Mr Dunne (33) lying dead in the street at the front door of the apartment No 81 Singerstraat. He had been shot in the head.

A second man lay critically injured, slumped over the banisters of the stairs just inside the front door. He had a head wound and a wound to the chest.

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A third man, apparently handcuffed, stumbled around on the pavement on the opposite side of the street, bleeding profusely from gunshot wounds. One eyewitness reported hearing the man shouting: "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I put your family's life in danger." The police took both injured men, a Dutch man and a British man, into custody.

Details on who may have carried out the shooting are unclear. One local man claimed there had only been one gunman, but others spoke of seeing two or more men fleeing in a silver-coloured car after the shooting. The car was later discovered burnt out in an unpopulated area on the eastern outskirts of the city.

As late as Saturday afternoon, residents were cleaning the bloody reminder of the killing. Blood stains were still visible around the door of Mr Dunne's home, on the pavement on both sides of the street and on cars.

A man living opposite No 81 said Mr Dunne had lived there for about 1 1/2 years, but they had never spoken. Like most residents, he had not even heard the gunfire and only realised something had happened when scores of police vehicles arrived.