Danish police say a number of people have died after the shooting in the Copenhagen shopping center According to Reuters

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Several people were killed in a shooting at a Copenhagen shopping mall on Sunday, Danish police said, they had arrested a 22-year-old Danish man and were unable to rule it out as an “act of terrorism”.

Police Chief Soren Thomassen told reporters: “There were a number of people injured, and what we know now is that a number of people are dead,” police chief Soren Thomassen told reporters. added that the police had launched a large-scale search operation throughout the local area of ​​Zealand.

Thomassen declined to talk about the suspect’s potential motives and whether he was known to police.

Copenhagen police said officers were dispatched to the Field shopping center in the Danish capital on Sunday afternoon following reports of a shooting, and have asked those inside to stay and stay. waiting for support.

There is currently no indication that other shooters are present, police said.

The capital’s main hospital, Rigshospitalet, received a “small group of patients” for treatment, a spokesman told Reuters. The spokesperson added that they have called in additional staff, including surgeons and nurses.

Local media released images showing heavily armed police officers at the scene, as well as people running out of the shopping mall. Footage posted by tabloid Ekstra Bladet shows a person being carried by rescuers into an ambulance on a stretcher.

“At first people thought it was a thief… Then suddenly I heard gunshots and threw myself behind the counter inside the store,” a witness, Rikke Levandovski, told TV2 broadcaster.

“He just shot into the crowd, not the ceiling or the floor,” she added.

A huge multi-storey shopping mall with shops, restaurants and parking, located about 5 km (3 mi) south of Copenhagen city centre.

The attack follows a deadly shooting in neighboring Norway last week in which two people were killed by a lone gunman in the capital, Oslo.

The terrorist threat against Denmark is currently assessed as “severe”, with the biggest threat coming from “militant Islamism”, according to the latest report by the Security and Intelligence Service. Denmark.

The threat to Denmark from right-wing extremists is considered to be on the “generic” level, which means likely and/or intent and possibly planned.

Denmark last saw a militia attack in 2015, when two people were killed and six police officers injured when a lone gunman shot and killed a man outside a cultural center. is organizing a debate about freedom of speech, and then killing a person outside a synagogue in central Copenhagen.

The gunman was killed in a shootout with police.

An event in Southern Denmark to celebrate the end of the first three stages of the Tour de France cycling race, chaired by the Crown Prince of Denmark and attended by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, was canceled at the end. on Sunday, the Royal said. website.