Denmark: ‘Several dead’ in Copenhagen mall shooting

COPENHAGEN: Gunfire in a Copenhagen mall on Sunday left several dead and several wound, Danish police said, adding that they had arrested one person in his twenties.

“We now know that there are several dead,” Copenhagen police chief Soren Thomassen told a Sunday evening press conference. Adding that there also several wounded. Thomassen described the apprehended suspect, as a 22-year-old “ethnic Dane,” but said it was too early to establish a motive.

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“We investigate it as an act, where we can’t exclude, that it’s terror”. The police chief said. They had no indication that the man had acted together with others, and police were maintaining an increased presence both around the shopping mall and across Copenhagen, he added.

The attack occurred two days after this year’s Tour de France cycling competition started took off from Copenhagen, and the Tour organisers released a statement expressing their sympathy.

“The entire caravan of the Tour de France sends its sincerest condolences to the victims and their families,” it said. Images from the scene showed parents carrying their children as they ran from the building. Also ambulance personnel carrying people away on stretchers.

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Eyewitnesses quoted by Danish media said they had seen more than 100 people rush towards the mall’s exit as the first shots were fired.

“We could see that many people suddenly ran towards the exit and then we heard a bang”. Thea Schmidt, who in the mall at time of the attack told broadcaster TV2. “Then we ran out of Field’s too.”