One dead, three police hurt in shooting at Copenhagen Islam debate

[Psalm 51:17]

http://news.yahoo.com/one-dead-copenhagen-shooting-171538319.html
One dead, three police hurt in shooting at Copenhagen Islam debate
2/14/15

Copenhagen (AFP) - A gunman killed at least one person and wounded three police officers after opening fire Saturday on a cultural centre in Copenhagen as it was hosting a debate on Islam and free speech.

Swedish artist Lars Vilks -- the author of controversial Prophet Mohammed cartoons that sparked worldwide protests in 2007 -- was among those at the debate targeted by the gunman, who fled the scene after a shootout with police.

Danish Prime Minister Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt described the assault as "a terrorist attack" as Danish television showed the windows of the Krudttonden cultural centre pock-marked by multiple bullet holes.

Police released a photo of the suspect showing a man in a dark anorak and a maroon hat carrying a black bag.

They described him as 25-30 years old, around 185cm (six feet) tall, with an athletic build.

French ambassador to Denmark Francois Zimeray, who had been present at the debate but was not hurt, told AFP the shooting was an attempt to replicate the January 7 killings at the Charlie Hebdo weekly in Paris.

"They shot from the outside (and) had the same intention as Charlie Hebdo, only they didn't manage to get in," he said by telephone from the venue.

"Intuitively I would say there were at least 50 gunshots, and the police here are saying 200," he told AFP.

"Bullets went through the doors and everyone threw themselves to the floor."

A statement by Danish police said "an unidentified man died after having been hit by bullets" in the strike, and three officers were wounded in the shooting.

Police initially said two suspects had fled the scene in a Volkswagen Polo. The car was found abandoned around two hours after the attack.

http://After witness statements indicated there was just one attacker, [color=red]police later said they were hunting for a lone gunman[/color].

Media reports said it was likely the gunman used an automatic rifle to fire as many rounds as possible in a short time.

"Denmark has today been hit by a cynical act of violence. Everything leads us to believe that the shooting was a political attack and therefore a terrorist act," the Danish premier said in a statement.

The assault comes at a time of heightened security and rising fears of Islamist attacks, following January 7-9 incidents in Paris that left 17 people dead.

Anti-terror sweeps carried out across Europe since mid-January have resulted in the arrests of dozens of suspected jihadists and seizures of large stocks of weapons and explosives.

- 'Bullets went through doors' -

Raids in Belgium on January 17 thwarted what police called imminent "terrorist attacks to kill police officers on public roads and in police stations."

Two suspects were killed fighting Belgian police in those sweeps.

Satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo raised the ire of Islamist extremists by republishing cartoons by Vilks and other caricatures, and periodically satirising Islam.

Vilks has been under police protection since his earlier controversial cartoons were published.

Concern of renewed attacks targeting symbols of freedom of speech and the press have been growing since the Charlie Hebdo assault, Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire told AFP after the Copenhagen assault.

"It's something that we feared after Charlie Hebdo. We see that ultra-radical groups are leading a war against freedom of expression, against the freedom to be irreverent about religion and against the simple freedom to debate them," Deloire said.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius condemned what he called a "terrorist attack targeting a public meeting", saying in a statement that France "remains by the side of the Danish authorities and people in the fight against terrorism."

The French president's office said Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was headed to the scene.

[Psalm 51:17]

http://news.yahoo.com/copenhagen-police-arrest-two-europe-edge-attacks-091909632.html
Denmark charges two as Europe on edge after fresh attacks
2/16/15

Copenhagen (AFP) - Two men were charged in Copenhagen on Monday with helping the gunman who killed two people in twin weekend attacks that have stoked renewed fears of Islamist and anti-Semitic violence in Europe.

Flags were flying at half-mast across Denmark after the shootings that stunned one of the world's most peaceful nations.

The suspected attacker, gunned down by police in a pre-dawn shootout on Sunday, was identified as a 22-year-old Dane with a history of violent crime who had only been freed from jail two weeks ago.

Danish intelligence said the gunman, who killed two people in attacks just hours apart at a cultural centre and a synagogue may have been inspired by last month's Islamist attacks in Paris.

"A new type of war," thundered the right-wing Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which had itself triggered violent protests across the Muslim world after publishing cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.

Two suspects were charged Monday with helping the Copenhagen attacker get rid of his weapon and giving him somewhere to hide, according to the lawyer of one of the men, Michael Juul Eriksen, told AFP.

Police confirmed two men had been charged with aiding the gunman but did not confirm the specific allegations against them.

 -' Cynical act of terror' -

 From Tokyo to London, Riyadh to New York, expressions of sympathy and outrage poured after the shootings described by Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt as a "cynical act of terror".

Several media identified the gunman as Omar El-Hussein, who was said by the Ekstra-Bladet tabloid to have been released from prison two weeks ago after serving a term for aggravated assault -- raising fears he may have become radicalised behind bars.

Investigators said the man, who was born and raised in Denmark, had a history of assault and weapons offences.

In a killing spree that bore a striking resemblance to the Paris attacks, the gunman first fired off a volley of bullets outside the Krudttoenden centre on Saturday afternoon during a panel discussion about Islam and free speech.

Documentary film-maker Finn Norgaard, 55, who colleagues said had a special interest in the problems of integration in Denmark, was killed.

In the second attack in the early hours of Sunday, the gunman opened fire outside the synagogue during a bar mitzvah, killing a 37-year-old Jewish man named as Dan Uzan who was guarding the building.

Five policemen were wounded in the two incidents before the gunman was tracked down to a working class district of Copenhagen and killed in a shootout with police.

Police said the gunman was already "on the radar" of the intelligence services and that they were investigating if he had travelled to conflict zones such as Syria and Iraq.

"He may have been inspired by the events that took place in Paris a few weeks ago," national intelligence chief Jens Madsen told reporters Sunday.

A photo of the suspect showed him wearing a black puffer jacket and a maroon balaclava and carrying a black bag.

- Floral tributes -

Armed officers raided a Copenhagen Internet cafe in one of a series of operations on Sunday as police stepped up patrols on the streets of the city of one million people.

The central area of the capital that is home to both the synagogue and Noerreport station, the country's busiest rail hub, was cordoned off by police carrying machine guns.

Tearful Danes have laid flowers and candles at the sites of the killings, while the Copenhagen bourse said it would observe a minute's silence in honour of the victims.

A columnist in the left-of-centre Politiken newspaper linked the shootings to the rise of the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party in a country were immigrants make up about nine percent of the population.

The attacks have revived fears in Europe about jihadist violence and anti-Semitic attacks against Jews since the bloody events in Paris on January 7-9.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately urged European Jews to move to his country after Saturday's shooting, echoing a similar call made after the Paris attacks.

But France responded icily to his comments, with President Francois Hollande saying that Jews belonged in Europe and "in particular in France" despite anti-Semitic incidents including the defacing of hundreds of tombstones at a Jewish cemetery.

Four Jews were among a total of 17 people killed in the Paris attacks on a kosher supermarket and the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly, which had published cartoons lampooning Mohammed.

World governments reacted with outrage to the Copenhagen killings.

British Prime Minister David Cameron condemned them as an "appalling attack on free speech and religious freedom", while the United States branded them "deplorable" and UN chief Ban Ki-moon said there was "no justification" for the bloodshed.