After the shots were fired in a shopping center in Copenhagen, the police arrested a suspect. He is a 22-year-old Dane, chief inspector Søren Thomassen said on Sunday evening. After the crime, he allowed himself to be arrested by the police without much resistance. According to the police, he killed and injured several people. Exact numbers were not initially given.
The Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet meanwhile published a witness video that is supposed to show the perpetrator. You can see a white man in capri pants, carrying a rifle on his shoulder. Additional images show him running through the building with the gun.
The day before the massacre, the man released four videos totaling nearly 10 minutes. All show him with a rifle or handgun. Posing with arms, he kneels and holds a rifle to his head. Police psychologists are currently examining his mental health. It is still too early to provide information regarding the motive, said the police chief. It is being investigated, and “we cannot rule out that it is terrorism”.
The shooter was outside the building with the gun. According to eyewitnesses, another video published on Twitter shows the alleged perpetrator standing on an outside staircase with the gun.
Copenhagen Mayor Sophie H. Andersen tweeted following the incident: “We do not yet know exactly how many people are injured or dead, but it is very serious.”
“We suddenly heard shots, I heard ten shots, and we ran as far as we might to hide in the toilets,” Isabella told public broadcaster DR. She hid in the mall for two hours. Other eyewitnesses described the shooter as a six-foot-tall man with a hunting rifle.
Witnesses also told the Jyllands-Posten newspaper that they had heard shots. “You didn’t know what was happening. Suddenly chaos broke out everywhere,” 20-year-old Emilie Jeppesen told the newspaper. Her friend Astrid Kofoed Jørgensen said: “Everyone in the restaurant was sent to the kitchen, then we sat there and we might hear three or four shots.”
Cell phone videos posted to Twitter show people fleeing in panic, running screaming through the mall. Gunshots can be heard in the background.
A security guard leads the crowd gathered outside Field’s away from the building. He calls out, “Come on! Everybody out! They shoot!”
Field’s is a large shopping center in the relatively new district of Ørestad in the south of Copenhagen. The large multi-purpose hall Royal Arena is also nearby. A sold-out concert by British singer Harry Styles was planned there on Sunday.
Harry Styles was supposed to be giving a concert 650 meters from the crime scene
A concert with British singer Harry Styles planned for the evening at the nearby Royal Arena was initially supposed to take place, but was canceled following criticism. The 28-year-old was only supposed to perform regarding 650 meters from the mall. “My team and I are praying for everyone who witnessed the shooting at the Copenhagen mall”; Styles explained in a Snapchat post. “I’m shocked.”
The Danish royal family had previously canceled a reception they were planning to give on Sunday night to mark the Tour de France. Sunday was the last day the tour drove through Denmark.
It is the second time in a short period of time that there has been an attack in a Scandinavian capital. Just over a week ago, two people were killed and 21 others injured in a gay bar in Oslo. The Norwegian secret service PST classifies the attack as an Islamist terrorist attack.
