One civilian was killed and three policemen were wounded during a free speech public forum at a Copenhagen cafe in an apparent terror attack on Saturday.
Danish police said a 40-year-old man was killed and three police officers wounded when a lone gunman fired some 30 shots through the window of the Krudttoenden cafe that was hosting the event, which was attended by controversial Swedish artist Lars Vilks.
In a statement, Denmark’s PET agency, the country’s security and intelligence service, said the shooting’s circumstances “indicate that we are talking about a terror attack.”
Cartoonist #LarsVilks was target of #CopenhagenShooting. He had drawn the prophet as a dog pic.twitter.com/0jSXfIxXn5
— Breaking 3.0 U.S. (@Breaking3zeroUS) February 14, 2015
The unharmed Vilks, who lives under police protection, has faced numerous threats and stoked international controversy for his caricature drawings of the Prophet Mohammed, which resulted in at least one failed attempt by extremists to assassinate him.
After initially searching for two suspected gunmen, authorities later said “preliminary interviews indicate there was only one perpetrator” and released a photo of the lone shooting suspect.
Photo of 'lone' Copenhagen shooting suspect released by Danish police http://t.co/dVjFamNgXG pic.twitter.com/BkvX3KtB8t
— ITV News (@itvnews) February 14, 2015
Also present at the cafe was France’s Ambassador-at-large for Human Rights Francois Zimeray, who was speaking at the event when the gunfire erupted. In a tweet following the attack, he said he was not hurt.
Still alive in the room
— Frankrigs ambassadør (@francedk) February 14, 2015
The event was billed as a debate on art, blasphemy and the freedom of expression.
Just over a month ago, 17 people were killed in France over three days when two Islamic extremists opened fire at the satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo that had published satirical images of the Prophet Mohammed.
