Copenhagen – One person was shot in the head and two police were wounded in an attack on a shul in central Copenhagen, Danish police said, adding that it was too early to say whether the incident was connected to an earlier one at an arts cafe.
Danish television station TV2 said a large metro and train station nearby, Norreport, was being evacuated.
Police could not yet describe the precise condition of the person shot in the head or the police officers who were hurt in synagogue attack.
The attack followed a shooting earlier today on a cafe which hosted a debate on freedom of speech and was attended by Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who has been threatened with death for his cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. One man died in that attack, and police said a suspect was still at large.
Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said Denmark was on high alert after a “terrorist attack” police said was aimed at Vilks, who stirred controversy in 2007 with published drawings depicting the Muslim prophet as a dog.
The cafe complex was hosting a cultural event called “Art, Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression.” French ambassador to Denmark Francois Zimeray, who was attending the event, likened the shooting to the attack on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris by Islamist militants that killed 12 people last month.
“We feel certain now that it was a politically motivated attack, and thereby it was a terrorist attack,” Thorning-Schmidt told journalists close to the site of the attack.
European Council President Donald Tusk called the attack “another brutal terrorist attack targeted at our fundamental values and freedoms, including the freedom of expression.”
{Matzav.com}
We salute Dan Uzan who lost his life protecting Jewish people at a Bat Mitzvah celebration in Copenhagen. Sincere condolences to his family and the Jewish community in Copenhagen.