Credit: JakobSR, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Several people have been killed and injured in a shooting at a shopping mall in Denmark’s capital Copenhagen, Danish police say.
The suspected gunman, who is in custody, is a 22-year-old Danish man who was detained near the Fields shopping mall, police inspector Soren Thomassen, who is the head of the Copenhagen police operations unit, said on Sunday, July 3.
The shopping centre is on the outskirts of Copenhagen, just across from a subway line that connects the city centre with the international airport. A major highway also runs adjacent to Field’s.
“There are several injured, and what we also know now is that there are several dead,” Thomassen told a news conference, adding that a motive of “terrorism” cannot be ruled out.
“We do not have information that others are involved. This is what we know now,” he said.
Police said they were first notified about an ongoing shooting at 5:36 pm local time (15:36 GMT).
Local Danish media published images showing heavily armed police officers at the scene, as well as people running out of the mall looking terrified.
Laurits Hermansen told Danish broadcaster DR that he was in a clothing store at the shopping centre with his family when he heard “three-four bangs. Really loud bangs. It sounded like the shots were being fired just next to the store”.
UK singer Harry Styles was due to perform at 8pm on Sunday at a concert venue less than a mile (1.6km) from the mall.
The concert promoter Live Nation said the concert will go ahead as scheduled after close dialogue with the police, and half of the audience has already entered the venue.
On Snapchat, Styles wrote ”My team and I pray for everyone involved in the Copenhagen shopping mall shooting. I am shocked. Love H.”
Shortly after the shooting, the royal palace said a reception with Crown Prince Frederik connected to the Tour de France cycling race had been cancelled. The first three stages of the race were held in Denmark this year, the palace said in a statement.
