'Denmark Was Hit by a Cruel Attack on Sunday Night'

3 killed in Copenhagen shopping mall, others injured
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jul 3, 2022 4:55 PM CDT
Updated Jul 3, 2022 10:00 PM CDT
Shoppers in Denmark Mall Hide, Flee as Shooting Begins
A woman and children flee the Field's shopping center after a shooting Sunday in Copenhagen, Denmark.   (Olafur Steinar Gestsson/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

This story has been updated throughout with the confirmed death toll and other details.

A gunman opened fired inside a busy shopping mall in the Danish capital on Sunday, killing three people and wounding others, three critically, police said. A 22-year-old Danish man was arrested, Copenhagen police inspector Søren Thomassen told reporters, adding there was no indication that more than one person was involved. The BBC reports Thomassen said a motive hasn't been determined, and that an "act of terrorism" could not yet be ruled out. The Guardian reports police were aware of the suspect, but "only peripherally," per Thomassen. He said the suspect was an "ethnic Dane," a phrase typically used to mean someone who is white. The suspect will be questioned by a judge Monday.

The shooting took place in late afternoon at Field’s, one of the biggest shopping malls in Scandinavia, located on the outskirts of Copenhagen. Witnesses said that when the shots rang out, some people hid in shops while others fled in a panicked stampede, the AP reports. "It is pure terror. This is awful," said Hans Christian Stoltz, a 53-year-old IT consultant, who was bringing his daughters to see Harry Styles perform Sunday night nearby. "You might wonder how a person can do this to another human being." The concert was canceled in the shooting's aftermath.

Laurits Hermansen told Danish broadcaster DR that he was in a clothing store at the shopping center with his family when he heard "three, four bangs. Really loud bangs. It sounded like the shots were being fired just next to the store." On Snapchat, Styles wrote: "My team and I pray for everyone involved in the Copenhagen shopping mall shooting. I am shocked. Love H." "Denmark was hit by a cruel attack on Sunday night," said Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. "Innocent families shopping or eating out. Children, adolescents and adults. Our beautiful and usually so safe capital was changed in a split second."

(More mass shootings stories.)

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