Emergency services responded on Thursday afternoon to a report of a person in the water on Kanaaldijk Zuid-West in Helmond. The person had been taken from the water by the time the ambulance arrived, so the fire service did not need to intervene. It remains unclear how the person entered the water or whether they were injured; no hospital transport was known to have been required.

During the response, an ambulance driver dropped the vehicle key into the canal, leaving the ambulance unable to leave. A second ambulance brought a spare key.