Police Shoot Man Attacking Muhammad Cartoonist

Ax- and knife-wielding man breaks into Kurt Westergaard home
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 2, 2010 5:17 AM CST
Police Shoot Man Attacking Muhammad Cartoonist
FILE- In this Oct. 27, 2009 file photo, Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, sits in the offices of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in Aarhus, Denmark. Police foiled an attempt to kill an artist who drew cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that sparked outrage in the Muslim world, the head of Denmark's...   (AP Photo/Polfoto)

Police shot a Somali man wielding an ax and a knife last night after he broke into the home of Kurt Westergaard, the Danish artist whose cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban outraged the Muslim world. A 28-year-old man with ties to al-Qaeda was caught by police when Westergaard activated an alarm in his home in Aarhus. The intruder was shot in a knee and a hand after he wielded an ax at a police officer; he was hospitalized but his life was not in danger.

Westergaard, whose 5-year-old granddaughter was in the home on a sleepover, sought shelter in a specially made safe room when the suspect broke a window of the home, police said. Westergaard said the assailant shouted "revenge" and "blood" as he tried to enter the bathroom where the cartoonist and the child had sought shelter. Danish intelligence sources said the intruder has close relations to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab and al-Qaeda leaders in eastern Africa. He will be charged with attempted murder. (More Kurt Westergaard stories.)

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