The Police announce the arrest of a 22-year-old Danish man and do not rule out that the attack may have a terrorist nature
A shooting recorded yesterday afternoon in a large shopping center in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, left at least three dead and as many seriously injured, as confirmed last morning by the chief inspector of the Police, Soren Thomassen. The same source pointed out that a 22-year-old Danish man had been arrested in relation to the attack, without ruling out that there are more involved. “At the moment, we cannot give any more information about his identity,” Thomassen said. In an intervention in which he offered scant data, he also did not rule out that it is a terrorist attack. “The investigation is ongoing and we cannot reject anything yet,” he noted.
The Field’s shopping center, located in the Amager neighborhood, between the center of the capital and the airport, was immediately taken over by a large deployment of security forces and assistance teams after about half past five in the afternoon. the first alarm, according to the Copenhagen Police on their Twitter account. “We have to be absolutely sure that we control the situation. It is a great operation », highlighted Thomassen during his public intervention.
The agents arrived when more than a hundred people were running outside the facilities after the first shots were heard, according to witnesses quoted by local media. The device asked those who were still in the building to remain inside until its troops arrived.
Some images broadcast on Danish television showed medical personnel carrying an injured person on a stretcher and mothers comforting their children in their arms. According to the national chain DR, three people were hospitalized, but that balance does not include any injured people who could be treated in the shopping center itself.
Some witnesses stated that they had been able to hear between three and four shots, although others raised the number of detonations to a dozen. “I was with my three young children in the mall trying on clothes at H&M when I heard three or four shots. They looked like shots made next to this store, on the first floor,” Laurits Hermansen said. He added that he was soon able to see people running away, while other people entered the clothing store yelling “There are shots! There are shots!” Other testimonies from clients affirm that many tried to escape by going down in the elevator, which, however, stopped working, apparently deactivated by the Police.
“I only think about my life”
A married couple was also caught shopping when chaos erupted. “I could see people starting to run. We all try to hide in changing rooms on the recommendation of shop assistants. We were seven people in there », says the husband, who, like his wife, was deeply shocked. “I think I am in danger of death. I don’t think about whether it’s terrorism or gang related. I only think about my life, “added the woman.
Some claim they were able to see the shooter. “He was wearing black clothes. He wasn’t very tall and he wasn’t wearing anything covering his face or anything like that, and he was carrying a gun,” Rikke Levandovski told TV2. Another witness, Mahdi al Wazni, said the attacker had a long gun. The streets surrounding the shopping center were blocked by a wide security perimeter with heavily armed policemen and the circulation of the subway was suspended. A helicopter flew over the area.
In a nearby apartment building, Oscar, 21, and Jonas, 22, were sitting watching television when they heard a loud noise. Later, they looked out the window and could see shards of glass flying from one floor above. As they stepped out onto the balcony, an officer in combat gear motioned for them to return to his apartment.
About 650 meters from the Field’s shopping center is the Royal Arena pavilion, where the British singer Harry Styles was scheduled to hold a concert for which all the tickets had been sold and which the organizers finally suspended. Styles himself wrote on the Snapchat social network to be “shocked.”
The last attack in Copenhagen occurred on February 14 and 15, 2015, when a series of Islamist shootings caused two deaths and five injuries.
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