Shots ring out, then panic breaks out. Several people are shot and killed in a shopping center in Copenhagen. A suspect is caught.
Several people have been shot dead in a Copenhagen shopping mall. There are also several injured, said police chief inspector Søren Thomassen on Sunday evening at a press conference in the Danish capital.
A suspect has been arrested. It is a 22-year-old Dane. In view of the circumstances, the arrest was “relatively undramatic”, said Thomassen. It is too early to say anything about the motive.
panic and chaos
Panic broke out after the shots were fired in Field’s shopping center in southern Copenhagen. Eyewitnesses reported chaotic scenes. According to TV2, the Rigshospitalet hospital said three injured people had been taken there.
So far there is no evidence of other perpetrators, according to the chief inspector. Nevertheless, the authority is still investigating in this direction and is working intensively to secure the site. The shooter wore dark clothes and was not masked, eyewitness Rikke Levandovski told TV2. Another eyewitness, Mahdi Al-Wazni, said the man fired a long gun.
The previous information is associated with uncertainty, said chief inspector Thomassen. He spoke of a kind of chaos phase. The police were alerted at around 5:30 p.m. and are still on the scene with strong forces. Thomassen said that one is investigating an incident in which one cannot rule out that it could have been terrorism. The press conference was repeatedly interrupted by the wailing of sirens from patrol cars driving by, and a helicopter was also in action in the air.
“We do not yet know exactly how many people are injured or dead, but it is very serious,” tweeted Copenhagen Mayor Sophie H. Andersen. She was horrified by the “terrible” shots. A reception with the Danish Crown Prince Frederik on the royal ship “Dannebrog” in the port of Sønderborg in honor of the Tour de France, which began on Friday in Copenhagen, was canceled.
It is the second time in a short period of time that there has been an attack in a Scandinavian capital. Just over a week ago, two people were killed and 21 others injured in a gay bar in Oslo. The Norwegian secret service PST classifies the attack as an Islamist terrorist attack.
people on the run
Eyewitnesses reported several shots in Copenhagen. Laurits Hermansen told broadcaster DR that he heard three or four very loud bangs while he was in a shop with his family. Then other people ran into the store and reported shots, and he and his family fled through an emergency exit, Hermansen said. Eyewitness Levandovski said: “People first thought it was a thief.” Then she heard shots and hid behind a sales counter.
A helicopter hovered over the area. The area has been cordoned off. The police called on eyewitnesses to provide video and photo material.
Witnesses also told the newspaper “Jyllands-Posten” that they had heard shots. “You didn’t know what was happening. Suddenly chaos broke out everywhere, »said 20-year-old Emilie Jeppesen to the newspaper. Her friend Astrid Kofoed Jørgensen said: “Everyone in the restaurant was sent to the kitchen, then we sat there and could hear three or four shots.”
Harry Styles concert cancelled
Field’s is a large shopping center in the relatively new district of Ørestad in the south of Copenhagen. The large multi-purpose hall Royal Arena is also nearby. A sold-out concert by British singer Harry Styles was planned there on Sunday, but according to the media it was canceled.
Several thousand fans were initially allowed into the hall and waited there. The television station TV2 reported on Sunday evening that the fans in the hall had been told that the concert would not take place for security reasons. The fans were asked to leave the hall calmly.
After the shots became known, the organizer initially announced on Facebook that the concert would still take place. However, that was before deaths were reported. Hundreds of users criticized the organizer’s first decision on social media.
