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“And then there was a police car and an ambulance and I thought, what’s going on?”

After a couple in a white car were taken away by the police, witnesses say they heard what sounded like a gunshot coming from a Gatineau police van.

The incident was caught on video by one resident from the balcony of his apartment at 110 Boteler St. Partway through the video, there is a loud “pop” sound, followed by shouting in French.

“You can smell it, you can smell the residue of the shot,” says the resident who shot the video, but asked not to be named. “Something went off in the van.”

He and another bystander said the gunshot seemed to be accidental.

“There was one loud sound, maybe it was a gunshot. The cops seemed to duck,” said Jennifer Mercier, who said she was walking by with her young daughter when the scene unfolded.

“At first I was shocked, because I had no idea what was going on. And then I was scared because I had just gone through that intersection right while it was happening with my little girl,” she said.

A female driver and a male passenger were detained by police, said bystanders, adding that the woman was searched and then released from handcuffs, after which she was taken away in a police cruiser.

One witness said the man was not co-operating with the Gatineau officers and that police appeared “agitated.” The couple appeared to be unarmed, according to witnesses.

A Gatineau police official confirmed that officers from his force were at the scene Thursday, but didn’t give any more details.