Dead Danish terrorist ‘identified’ by media
Convicted criminal Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein is the suspected terrorist killed by police after two shootings in Denmark, local media have reported.
Police have not confirmed the name, but El-Hussein matches the official description of a 22-year-old gang member and convicted criminal.
The terrorist had a history of assault and weapons crimes and was released from prison only two weeks ago, media reported.
• Terrorists ‘playing us for mugs’, says Abbott
The man was shot dead by officers on Sunday after two fatal shootings that shocked the normally peaceful Danish capital of Copenhagen.
The killings, coming little more than a month after bloody Islamist attacks in Paris that left 17 people dead, were described by Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt as “a cynical act of violence”.
In the first incident at a Copenhagen cafe hosting a debate on Islam and free speech, a gunman opened fire, killing a 55-year-old man and injuring several other people.
A woman lays flowers outside a synagogue in Copenhagen. Photo: AAP
Among those attending the meeting at the Krudttoenden cultural centre were Lars Vilks, a Swedish cartoonist who has drawn controversial caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, and France’s ambassador to Denmark.
Just hours later, more shots were fired near the city’s main synagogue, leaving a young Jewish man dead and two policemen injured.
Police later shot dead a man when he opened fire on officers near a train station.
“We believe the same man was behind both shootings and we also believe that the perpetrator who was shot by the police action force at Noerrebro station is the person behind the two attacks,” chief police inspector Torben Molgaard Jensen told reporters.
The first lethal attacks on Danish soil in decades were branded “deplorable” by the United States and triggered condemnation around the world.
“We have tried the ugly taste of fear and powerlessness which terror hopes to create,” Ms Thorning-Schmidt told a briefing, saying Denmark was experiencing “a day of sorrow”.
“We will defend our democracy and we will defend Denmark at any time.”
The killing of the suspected perpetrator capped a massive police manhunt launched after the gunman fled the scene following both shootings.
The shootout took place shortly before dawn in the neighbourhood of Noerrebro, where police had been keeping an address under observation.
Police said video surveillance had led them to believe that the man killed by armed police was behind both attacks, but that they were still investigating whether he was acting alone.
The shooting came at the end of a night of fear that had gripped the city of about one million.
The central area of Copenhagen that is home to both the synagogue and Noerreport station, the country’s busiest rail hub, was cordoned off by police carrying machine guns.
Swedish security services told AFP they were on alert for any attempt by a suspect to cross the bridge linking Denmark with Sweden.
Increased controls introduced at the border with Germany were relaxed after the killing of the suspected perpetrator, Denmark’s TV2 reported.
‘Bullets went through the doors’
The suspect of a shooting attack on a free speech debate in Copenhagen. Photo: AFP
The windows of the cultural centre were pockmarked by bullet holes, and the BBC released chilling audio of the moment a speaker at the event was interrupted by a volley of gunshots.
France’s ambassador to Denmark, Francois Zimeray, who was present at the debate but was unhurt, told AFP the shooting was an attempt to replicate the January 7 attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris.
“They shot from the outside [and] had the same intention as Charlie Hebdo, only they didn’t manage to get in,” he said.
“Intuitively I would say there were at least 50 gunshots, and the police here are saying 200.
“Bullets went through the doors and everyone threw themselves to the floor.”
Sweden’s security police said Swedish bodyguards were with cartoonist Vilks at the time of the shooting.
Vilks stirred controversy in 2007 with published drawings depicting Mohammad as a dog which sparked threats from Islamist militant groups.
Michael Gelvan, chairman of the Nordic Jewish Security Council, said a bar mitzvah was underway inside the synagogue and that the “young man” who was shot had been responsible for “access control”.
“We don’t know anything yet, it’s too early to guess,” he said about possible motives behind the killing.
“But it’s a copy of what happened in Paris,” he said, referring to the deadly attacks at satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket in January.
In addition to the guard there were extra police outside the synagogue after community leaders contacted authorities following the afternoon gun attack at the nearby cafe.
“I dare not think about what would have happened if [the killer] had access to the congregation,” the chairman of The Jewish Community in Denmark, Dan Rosenberg Asmussen, told broadcaster TV2 News.
Police stand guard at the scene of a shooting in Denmark. Photo: Getty
Danish police had released a photo of the suspect in the cultural centre attack, wearing a black puffer jacket and a maroon balaclava and carrying a black bag.
Police confirmed two officers were shot in the arm and leg near the synagogue and a person who was shot in the head died. The gunman fled the scene on foot.
“It started with police being down at the site. A person comes up and starts to shoot,” police spokesman Allan Teddy Wadsworth-Hansen said.
“The two police who were there were hit, one in the arm and one in the leg. They are both currently receiving treatment. Their lives are not in danger.”
In a statement, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the “Government condemns the shooting at a free speech event in Copenhagen overnight”.
“The thoughts of all Australians are with the people of Denmark and, in particular, the family of the victim who lost his life and the police officers injured in this brutal act of terror,” he said.
“As with the Charlie Hebdo atrocity in Paris, the Copenhagen attack is an affront to one of our most fundamental values – freedom of speech.
“We stand with the people and government of Denmark in confronting this cynical attempt to undermine that fundamental right.”
—with agencies