A gunman opened fire on Sunday inside a busy mall in the Danish capital, killing three people and seriously injuring three more, police said.
A 22-year-old Dane was arrested, Copenhagen police inspector Soren Thomassen told reporters, adding that there were no indications that anyone else was involved in the attack, although police were still investigating. .
Armed violence is relatively rare in Denmark.
Thomassen said it was too early to speculate on the reason for the shooting, which took place late in the afternoon at Field’s, one of Scandinavia’s largest shopping malls and located on the outskirts of the Danish capital. When the shots rang, some people hid in the shops while others fled in a panic, according to witnesses.
“It’s pure terror. That’s horrible,” said Hans Christian Stoltz, a 53-year-old computer consultant who was taking his daughters to see Harry Styles perform at the concert scheduled for Sunday night near the mall. . “You may be wondering how a person can do this to another human being, but it goes beyond … beyond anything that is possible.”
A person in a white suit is seduced by police near the Field Mall after the shooting. (Claus Bech / Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Thomassen said among the victims was a man in his 40s and two “young men,” without giving details. Several others were injured, three of them critics, he said.
He said police received the first reports of a shooting at 5:37 p.m. local time and arrested the suspect 11 minutes later. Thomassen described the suspect as an “ethnic Dane,” a phrase commonly used to mean someone is white.
Danish broadcaster TV2 posted a grainy photograph of the alleged gunman, a man in knee-length shorts and a T-shirt and with what appeared to be a rifle in his right hand.
“He looked very violent and angry,” eyewitness Mahdi Al-Wazni told TV2. “He spoke to me and said that (the rifle) is not real while I was filming it. He seemed very proud of what he was doing.”
People are running from a shopping mall in Copenhagen where a shooter opened fire on Sunday. Police say one person has been arrested. (Olafur Steinar Gestsson / Ritzau Scanpix / The Associated Press)
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the Scandinavian country had been hit by a “cruel attack”.
“It’s incomprehensible. Tearing. Useless,” he said. “Our beautiful and usually so safe capital was changed in a split second.”
Images of the scene showed people running outside the mall, and TV2 posted a photo of a man standing on a stretcher. After the shooting, a huge contingent of heavily armed police patrolled the area, with several firefighters ’vehicles also parked outside the mall.
Armed police are near an ambulance in front of a shopping mall in Copenhagen after a shooting on Sunday. Police said several people were injured in the attack. (Olafur Steinar Gestsson / Ritzau Scanpix / The Associated Press)
Laurits Hermansen told Danish broadcaster DR that she was in a mall clothing store with her family when she heard “three, four blows. Some very loud blows. It looked like the shots were fired right next to the shop “.
The shopping center is located on the outskirts of Copenhagen, just opposite a one-line metro station connecting the city center with the international airport. An important road also passes next to the mall.
Harry Styles concert, royal reception canceled
Organizers suspended the Harry Styles concert, which had been scheduled at the nearby Royal Arena, by order of police.
On Snapchat, Styles wrote, “My team and I pray for everyone involved in the Copenhagen mall shooting. I’m shocked. Love H.”
The Royal Palace of Denmark said a reception with Crown Prince Frederik related to the Tour de France cycling race had been canceled. The first three stages of the race were held this year in Denmark. The reception was to take place on the royal yacht which is moored in Soenderborg, the city where the third stage ended.
Emergency services staff maintain protective screens outside the mall on Sunday. The condition of the wounded in the attack has not yet been made public. (Olafur Steinar Gestsson / Ritzau Scanpix / The Associated Press)
In a joint statement, Queen Margrethe, her son Crown Prince Frederik and his wife, Princess Mary, said: “We do not yet know the extent of the tragedy, but it is already clear that more people have lost their lives. and that they have been further injured. “
“The situation calls for unity and care,” they say in a statement.
The shooting came a week after a mass shooting in neighboring Norway, where police said a Norwegian man of Iranian origin opened fire during an LGBTQ festival, killing two and injuring more than 20.
Although the total number of cases in Copenhagen on Sunday was still unclear, it appeared to be the worst armed attack in Denmark since February 2015, when a 22-year-old man was killed in a shootout with police after being shot. . in the capital that left two people dead and five policemen injured.