Copenhagen cops shoot and kill man believed to be behind gun attacks

Copenhagen police say they have killed the man believed to be behind twin shootings in the Danish capital that left two dead and five wounded. The exchange of fire took place in the inner-city neighbourhood of Noerrebro, where police had been keeping an address under observation. Based on the preliminary investigation, there is nothing to suggest there were other gunmen involved in the shootings, investigator Joergen Skov said. The shooter’s first victim, a 55-year-old man, was killed yesterday when the gunman opened fire at Copenhagen’s Krudttoenden cultural centre. A second man was shot in the head and killed early Sunday near Copenhagen’s main synagogue in the city centre.

The police are now investigating if the person could be behind the shootings at Krudttoenden and the synagogue in Krystalgade.

Danish police in a statement

Two policemen were wounded in the shooting at the synagogue and three more officers were hurt in the Krudttoenden attack. Police said they did not have enough information to confirm the two shootings were linked. But Lars Vilks – the Swedish artist whose controversial Prophet Mohammed cartoon sparked worldwide protests in 2007 – was among the speakers at the cultural centre and believes he was the target of the attack. The cartoonist has been under police protection since August 2007, when he published an extremely controversial caricature of the Prophet Muhammad in Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda.

At first there was panic. People crawled down under tables. My bodyguards quickly pulled me away.

Swedish artist Lars Vilks

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