A shooting at a free speech event featuring an artist who had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad and a second shooting hours later outside a synagogue left two dead and five police officers wounded in Copenhagen, stirring fears that another terror spree was underway in a European capital a month after 17 people were killed in Paris attacks.
Police couldn't say whether the shootings at a cultural center Saturday afternoon and in front of the synagogue early Sunday were connected, but didn't rule it out. In both shootings, the gunman got away.
"We are looking for two perpetrators," police spokesman Allan Wadsworth-Hansen told reporters.
The first shooting happened shortly before.....
4 p.m. Saturday. Danish police said the gunman used an automatic weapon to shoot through the windows of the Krudttoenden cultural center during a panel discussion on freedom of expression following the Paris attacks. A 55-year-old man attending the event was killed, while three police officers were wounded. Two belonged to the Danish security service PET, which said the circumstances surrounding the shooting "indicate that we are talking about a terror attack."
The gunman then fled in a carjacked Volkswagen Polo that was found later a few kilometers (miles) away, police said.
Lars Vilks, a Swedish artist who has faced numerous death threats for caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad, was one of the main speakers at the event, titled "Art, blasphemy and freedom of expression." He was whisked away by his bodyguards unharmed as the shooting began.
Vilks, 68, later told The Associated Press he believed he was the intended target of the shooting.
"What other motive could there be? It's possible it was inspired by Charlie Hebdo," he said, referring to the Jan. 7 attack by Islamic extremists on the French newspaper that had angered Muslims by lampooning Muhammad.
Police spokesman Joergen Skov said it was possible the gunman had planned the "same scenario" as in the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
After searching for the first gunman for hours, police reported the second shooting in downtown Copenhagen after midnight Sunday. Wadsworth-Hansen said that gunman opened fire at two police officers outside the synagogue. They were wounded in the arms and legs but were not in life-threatening condition, while a civilian man was killed. The gunman fled on foot.
Sebastian Zepeda, a 19-year-old visitor from London, said he didn't want to leave his hotel room after hearing of the first shooting and was text messaging with his mother when the second shooting happened on the street below.
However, the murder manhunt in Copenhagen reached a climax on Sunday morning when a suspect was shot and killed by police, hours after two people died in separate gun attacks at a cafe and then a synagogue in the Danish capital.
After a night of drama and bloodshed Copenhagen police said the man they killed was believed to be the perpetrator from the twin shootings that threw Denmark’s capital into a state of lockdown. The Danish prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, praised police and condemned what she called “a cynical act of terror”.
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