Footage from the scene of the incident showed people running out of the mall.
Courtesy | Witnesses said people were crying and hiding in stores
A gunman opened fire inside a bustling shopping center in the Danish capital on Sunday, leaving three dead and three critically wounded, police said.
A 22-year-old Dane was arrested, Copenhagen police inspector Søren Thomassen said, adding there was no indication anyone else was involved in the attack, although authorities were still investigating. Thomassen said the three victims were a man in his early 40s and “two young men.”
These kinds of shootings are rare in Denmark. Thomassen said it is too early to speculate on a motive for the shooting, which occurred in the afternoon at Field’s, one of Scandinavia’s largest shopping malls on the outskirts of the Danish capital. When the shots were heard, some people hid inside shops, while others fled in a horrified stampede, according to witnesses.
“It is absolute terror. This is horrendous,” said Hans Christian Stoltz, a 53-year-old IT consultant who was taking his daughters to see a Harry Styles concert, which was to take place Sunday night near the mall. . “One might wonder how it is possible for a person to do this to another human being, but it is beyond anything that is possible.”
Thomassen said the suspect is an “ethnic Dane,” a phrase normally used to refer to a white person.
The Danish television channel TV2 published a low-quality photo of the alleged assailant, who was wearing knee-length shorts, a T-shirt and appeared to be carrying a rifle in his right hand.
“Terrible reports of a shooting at Field’s. We still don’t know for sure how many people were injured or killed, but it is very serious,” Copenhagen Mayor Sophie H. Andersen tweeted.
Footage from the scene of the shooting showed people running outside the mall, and TV2 posted a photo of a man being placed on a stretcher. After the shooting, a large contingent of heavily armed police patrolled the area, and several fire vehicles were also in the parking lot.
Laurits Hermansen told Danish broadcaster DR that she was in a clothing store in the mall with her family when she heard “three or four shots. Very strong detonations. It looked like the shots were being fired right next to the store.”
The shopping center is located on the outskirts of Copenhagen, a short distance from a metro station on a line that connects the city center with the international airport. A major highway runs alongside the mall.
The Danish press reported that Styles’ concert, which was to take place at the nearby Royal Arena, was cancelled.
“My team and I are praying for everyone involved in the Copenhagen shopping center shooting. I am shocked. Love H.” Styles wrote on Snapchat.
Denmark, a shooting in a shopping center in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Numerous witnesses claim to have seen a man shooting inside it a little over an hour ago. pic.twitter.com/TpxZPS0ne4– Unika???? (@unikamix) July 3, 2022
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