Copenhagen, July 4 (BNA) Several people were killed in a shooting in a Copenhagen shopping center on Sunday, Danish police said, adding that they had arrested a 22-year-old Danish man and did not rule out that it was an “action”. of terrorism.”
“There are many injured and what we know now is that there are many dead,” Chief Inspector of Police Soren Thomassen told reporters, adding that police had launched a large-scale search across the local New Zealand area.
Copenhagen police said armed officers were dispatched to the Fields Center in the Danish capital late on Sunday afternoon after reports of shootings and told people to stay put and wait for help. Local media footage showed groups of panicked shoppers running from the mall.
Police said there were no initial indications of other shooters, and Thomassen declined to comment on possible motives or whether the shooter was known to police.
A spokesman for the capital’s main hospital, the Rigshpetalt, said it had taken in a “small group of patients” for treatment, and called up more doctors and nurses.
The Danish tabloid newspaper BT published unverified video footage that said witness Mahdi al-Wazzani had shot her, showing a man with a large rifle walking through the mall and turning it around his shoulders.
Al-Wazzani told BT.
Footage published by the newspaper Extra Bladet showed a person being carried by rescue workers into an ambulance on a stretcher.
An eyewitness, Ricky Lewandowski, told TV2: “At first people thought he was a thief… Then suddenly I heard gunshots and threw myself behind the counter inside the store.”
“He only shoots at the crowd, not at the ceiling or on the floor,” she added.
The multi-storey shopping center is located about 5 kilometers (3 miles) south of Copenhagen city centre.
“My friend and I… all of a sudden we hear gunshots. I heard about ten shots and then we ran as fast as we could down the toilet. We squeeze in this little toilet where there are about 11 people,” a witness said her name as Isabella told public radio Dr.
The attack comes after a deadly shooting in neighboring Norway last week in which two people were killed by a single bullet in the capital, Oslo.
The terrorist threat against Denmark is currently assessed as “serious”, with the greatest threat coming from “radical Islamists”, according to the latest report from the Danish Security and Intelligence Service.
The threat to Denmark from right-wing extremists is considered at a “general” level, which means that there is capacity and/or intent and possibly planning.
Denmark last saw a militant attack in 2015, when two people were killed and six police officers were injured when a gunman shot and killed a man outside a cultural center hosting a debate on free speech, and later killed someone outside a synagogue. Central Copenhagen.
That gunman was killed in a shootout with the police.
A concert by singer Harry Styles in Copenhagen on Sunday evening, close to the shopping center, has been canceled, police said.
The Royal House said on its website that an event in southern Denmark to commemorate the end of the first three stages of the cycling race in France, which was hosted by the Danish Crown Prince and in the presence of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, had been cancelled.