Three people have been killed and three more are in critical condition after a gunman opened fire on the crowd at a shopping mall in Copenhagen.
Shoppers were seen fleeing Field Mall on Sunday evening and others hid in stores after being shot at around 5.30pm local time (15:30 GMT).
A man in his 40s and “two young men” were killed and several others were injured, police inspector Soren Thomassen told a news conference.
A 22-year-old Dane has been arrested in connection with the shooting. There was no indication that anyone was involved, but detectives are investigating, Thomassen said.
While police could not rule out the possibility that it was an “act of terrorism,” it was too early to speculate on the gunman’s cell phone, he told reporters Sunday evening.
Police are convinced the man they arrested was the gunman, and that he was carrying a rifle and ammunition when he was arrested, the police chief said at the subsequent press conference.
The suspect has been charged with manslaughter, which in Danish law describes the act of intentionally killing someone, and will go before a judge on Monday, Thomassen said.
The shooting provoked a large police response, with a large number of armed officers patrolling and searching the area. Copenhagen police advised people inside the mall to stay and wait for police help after reports of an armed man emerged.
Images later taken by the media at the scene showed a man being driven in a police van by armed officers.
“We do not have information that there are others involved. That’s what we know now, ”Thomassen told the news conference.
Shoppers are fleeing a shooting at Field’s Mall in Copenhagen
(Ritzau Scanpix / AFP via Getty Ima)
Police did not initially give a specific number of victims, and a spokesman for the capital’s main hospital, Rigshospitalet, told Reuters he had received a “small group of patients” to receive treatment. He had summoned additional staff, including surgeons and nurses, the spokesman added.
The Danish station TV2 published a photo of a man lying on a stretcher and published a grainy photo of the alleged gunman: a man in knee-length shorts and a tank top and with what appeared to be a rifle in the right hand.
In a statement last night, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said: “We have all been brutally ripped from the bright summer that has just begun. It is incomprehensible. Tearing. No sense. Our beautiful and usually so safe capital has changed in a fraction of a second “.
The shopping center, one of the largest in Scandinavia, is located in Orestad, an area south of the Danish capital, on the island of Amager.
Laurits Hermansen was in a mall clothing store with her family when she heard “three or four times,” she told Danish broadcaster DR. “You were very strong. It looked like the shots were fired right next to the store,” he said.
One witness, Mahdi Al-wazni, told Danish tabloid BT that the gunman “looked very aggressive and shouted different things”. Another eyewitness, Rikke Levandovski, told TV2: “People first thought he was a thief … Then suddenly I heard gunshots and threw myself behind the store counter.”
“He’s just shooting at the crowd, not the ceiling or the floor,” he added.
A witness who gave her name as Isabella told the public channel DR: “My friend and I … suddenly hear shots. I hear about 10 shots and then I run as fast as we can to a toilet. We go inside. in this little toilet where we are about 11 people “.
In an update to 1948 local time [1748 GMT]Copenhagen police said: “We are still massively present in Fields and working to secure the entire building. If you are still in Fields, stay where you are and wait for the police.
The force encouraged residents of Copenhagen and those who have gone to the mall on Sunday to contact their relatives to let them know they are safe.
Friends comfort each other after a shooting at a shopping mall in Copenhagen (Olafur Steinar Gestsson / Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
(AP)
The mall is close to the airport and less than a mile from a concert hall where Harry Styles was scheduled to perform at 8 p.m.
The former One Direction star program was reportedly given permission to continue after a close dialogue with police, but was delayed and eventually canceled. The images showed a announcer on stage informing fans that the concert would not be held and that police would accompany them to the subway to leave the area.
Styles wrote on Snapchat: “My team and I pray for everyone involved in the Copenhagen mall shooting. I’m surprised. Love H.”
Hans Christian Stoltz, a 53-year-old computer consultant who brought his daughters to the Styles program, described the shooting as “pure terror.”
“That’s horrible,” he said. “You may be wondering how a person can do this to another human being, but it’s beyond anything possible.”
An event in the south of Denmark has also been canceled to commemorate the end of the first three stages of the Tour de France cycling race, hosted by the Danish Crown Prince and with the assistance of the Prime Minister, the Royal Palace has reported. on your website.
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 even more injured … The situation demands unity and care ”.
The shooting came a week after a mass shooting in neighboring Norway, where police said a man opened fire during an LGBT + festival, killing two people and injuring more than 20.
The terrorist threat against Denmark is currently rated as “serious”, and the biggest threat comes from “militant Islamism”, according to the latest report from the Danish Security and Intelligence Service.
The threat to right-wing extremists in Denmark is considered at a “general” level, meaning there is capacity and / or intention and possibly planning.
Denmark last saw a militant attack in 2015, during which a lone gunman shot and killed a man outside a cultural center organizing a debate on freedom of expression, and later killed a person outside of a synagogue in central Copenhagen. That gunman was killed in a shootout with police.
Additional reports from agencies