Copenhagen

A gunman killed 3 people and wounded others at a Copenhagen mall

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A gunman opened fire inside a busy shopping mall in the Danish capital Sunday, killing three people and critically wounding three others, police said.

A 22-year-old Danish man was arrested after the shooting, Copenhagen police inspector Søren Thomassen told reporters, adding there was no indication that anyone else was involved in the attack, though police were still investigating.

Gun violence is relatively rare in Denmark.

Thomassen said it was too early to speculate on the motive for the shooting, which happened in the late afternoon at Field's, one of the biggest shopping malls in Scandinavia and located on the outskirts of the Danish capital. When the shots rang out, some people hid in shops while others fled in a panicked stampede, according to witnesses.

"It is pure terror. This is awful," said Hans Christian Stoltz, a 53-year-old IT consultant, who was bringing his daughters to see Harry Styles perform at concert scheduled for Sunday night near the mall. "You might wonder how a person can do this to another human being, but it's beyond ... beyond anything that's possible."

Thomassen said the victims included a man in his 40s and two "young people," without giving details. Several others were injured, three of them critically, he said.

He said police received the first reports of a shooting at 5.37 p.m., and arrested the suspect 11 minutes later. Thomassen described the suspect as an "ethnic Dane," a phrase typically used to mean someone is white.

Danish broadcaster TV2 published a grainy photo of the alleged gunman, a man wearing knee-length shorts, a vest or sleeveless shirt, and holding what appeared to be a rifle in his right hand. "He seemed very violent and angry," eyewitness Mahdi Al-Wazni told TV2. "He spoke to me and said it (the rifle) isn't real as I was filming him. He seemed very proud of what he was doing."

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the Scandinavian country had been hit by a "cruel attack."

"It is incomprehensible. Heartbreaking. Pointless," she said. "Our beautiful and usually so safe capital was changed in a split second."

Images from the scene showed people running out of the mall, and TV2 posted a photo of a man being put on a stretcher. After the shooting, an enormous contingent of heavily armed police officers patrolled the area, with several fire department vehicles also parked outside the mall.

Laurits Hermansen told Danish broadcaster DR that he was in a clothing store at the shopping center 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."

The shopping center is on the outskirts of Copenhagen just across from a subway station for a line that connects the city center with the international airport. A major highway also runs adjacent to the mall.

Organizers called off the Harry Styles concert, which had been scheduled at the nearby Royal Arena, by order of police.

On Snapchat, Styles wrote: "My team and I pray for everyone involved in the Copenhagen shopping mall shooting. I am shocked. Love H."

The royal palace said a reception with Crown Prince Frederik connected to the Tour de France cycling race had been canceled. The first three stages of the race were held in Denmark this year. The reception was due to be held on the royal yacht that is moored in Soenderborg, the town where the third stage ended.

In a joint statement, Queen Margrethe, her son Crown Prince Frederik and his wife, Crown Princess Mary, said: "We do not yet know the full extent of the tragedy, but it is already clear that more people have lost their lives and that even more have been injured."

"The situation calls for unity and care," they said in a statement.

The shooting came a week after a mass shooting in neighboring Norway, where police said a Norwegian man of Iranian origin opened fire during a LGBTQ festival, killing two and wounding more than 20.

It was the worst gun attack in Denmark since February 2015, when a 22-year-old man was killed in a shootout with police after going on a shooting spree in the capital that left two people dead and five police officers wounded.

Suspect in Copenhagen mall shooting that killed three was known to psychiatric professionals, police say

Copenhagen, Denmark (CNN)A man arrested on suspicion of killing three people and wounding several others during a shooting at a shopping mall in Copenhagen was known to psychiatric professionals, Danish police said Monday.

The shooting unfolded on Sunday at multiple locations inside Field's, a shopping center in the Danish capital. Social media footage showed people running through the mall and heavily armed law enforcement officers on the scene.

At a press conference on Monday morning, Copenhagen's Head of Police Soren Thomassen said two 17-year-old Danish citizens, one male and one female, and a 47-year-old Russian national had been killed in the gunfire.

Two other Danes and two Swedish nationals had received gunshot wounds and were in hospital in critical but stable condition, while several others sustained minor injuries while leaving the mall, Thomassen said.

As of Monday, only one of the four injured remained in critical condition, according to Rigshospitalet hospital, where the majority of victims are receiving care.

A 22-year-old Danish man was arrested in connection with the shooting and is currently the only suspect. Thomassen said there is no indication the suspect was acting with others but an investigation was ongoing.

Earlier, the police had said they detained the suspect 13 minutes after receiving the first emergency call, and that he was "carrying a rifle and ammunition" at the time of his arrest.

At the news conference on Monday, Thomassen said there was no indication the attack was an "act of terror" nor motivated by gender, and police believe the victims were chosen at random. The suspect was "known to people in the psychiatric field," he said.

Mass shootings are rare in Denmark

Gun violence is relatively rare in Denmark. Copenhagen's last major shooting incident was in 2015, when a gunman attacked a free speech forum featuring controversial cartoonist Lars Vilks, killing one man and wounding three others.

As investigators piece together the circumstances that lead to Sunday's deadly shooting, questions are being asked as to how the suspected gunman could have obtained the weapon and ammunition used in the attack, as Denmark is considered to have some of the most restrictive gun laws in Europe.

Whereas in the United States gun ownership is conditionally guaranteed by the US Constitution, in Denmark, the right to private gun ownership is not guaranteed by law, according to GunPolicy.org, an organization that tracks international firearm policy.

Through restrictive licensing, Danish authorities attempt to reduce firearm violence by substantially reducing the number of firearms in circulation. An applicant for a firearm license in Denmark must pass a background check which considers criminal and mental health, GunPolicy.org said.

Only licensed gun owners may lawfully acquire, possess or transfer a firearm or ammunition. Applicants for a gun owner's license in Denmark are required to establish a genuine reason to possess a firearm, for example hunting, target shooting, collection, according to GunPolicy.org

Danish police on Monday confirmed the suspected shooter did not have a permit, according to Thomassen, the head of Copenhagen's police force.

'Run, run, run, they're still shooting in there'

Eyewitness Joachim Olsen, a former Danish politician and athlete, told CNN that he was on his way to a gym inside Field's when he saw large groups of people exiting the mall.

"It looked like something, I'm sorry to say, like something you would see from a school shooting in the US, people coming out with their hands above their heads," Olsen said.

"You have people running out, looking for friends and calling friends and family members who were inside, some speaking to friends who were inside," he said. "Old people with their arms around the necks of people carrying them out, their feet just being dragged across the floor."

Outside the mall, Olsen spoke to a man who spoke to an off-duty paramedic whose arms "were covered in blood up to his elbows."

"He wanted to go back in but the police wouldn't let him," Olsen said.

According to Olsen, security tried to get the crowds to move away from the mall.

"At one point we were rushed away. The police came and said 'Run, run, run, they're still shooting in there.'"

A spokesman for Rigshospitalet, Denmark's largest hospital, told CNN that the hospital had taken in several victims and had called in extra staff to deal with the emergency.