Shoppers were seen leaving Field’s mall on Sunday night and others hid in stores after gunfire rang out around 5:30 p.m. local time (1530 GMT). A man in his 40s and “two young people” were killed and several others injured, police inspector Søren Thomasen told a news conference. A 22-year-old Dane was arrested for the shooting. There was no indication that anyone else was involved, but detectives were investigating, Mr Thomassen said. While police could not rule out the possibility that it was a “terrorist act,” it was too early to speculate on the gunman’s motives, he told reporters earlier Sunday night. Police are confident the man they arrested was the gunman and was in possession of a rifle and ammunition when he was arrested, the police chief said at a news conference afterward. The suspect has been charged with manslaughter – which in Danish law describes the act of deliberately killing someone – and will go before a judge on Monday, Mr Thomassen said. The shooting prompted a huge police response, with a huge number of armed officers patrolling and searching the surrounding area. Copenhagen police advised people inside the mall to stay put and wait for police help after reports of a gunman. Photos later taken by media at the scene showed a man being led into a police van by armed officers. “We have no information that others are involved. This is what we know now,” Mr Thomassen told the press conference. Shoppers run from gunfire at Field’s shopping center in Copenhagen (Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Ima) Police did not initially give a specific number of casualties, and a spokesman for the capital’s main hospital, Rigshospitalet, told Reuters it had received a “small group of patients” for treatment. He had called in extra staff, including surgeons and nurses, the spokesman added. Danish broadcaster TV2 published a photo of a man being dressed and released a grainy photo of the alleged gunman – a man wearing knee-length shorts and a tank top and holding a rifle in his right hand. In a late-night statement, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said: “We have all been brutally ripped off by the glorious summer that had just begun. It is incomprehensible. Heartbreaking. Meaningless. Our beautiful and usually so safe capital changed in a split second.” The shopping center – one of the largest of its kind in Scandinavia – is located in Orestad, an area south of the Danish capital, on the island of Amager. Laurich Hermansen was in a clothing store in the mall with his family when he heard “three or four bangs,” he told Danish broadcaster DR. “Really hard hits. It sounded like the shots were being fired right next to the store,” he said. A witness, Mahdi Al-wazni, told Danish tabloid BT that the gunman “looked very aggressive and was shouting different things”. Another eyewitness, Rikke Levandovski, told TV2: “At first people thought it was a thief… Then suddenly I heard shots and I ran behind the counter inside the store.” “He just shoots at the crowd, not the ceiling or the floor,” he added. A witness who gave her name as Isabella told public broadcaster DR: “My friend and I … suddenly we hear gunshots. I hear about 10 gunshots and then run as fast as we can to a restroom. We go into this tiny toilet where there are about 11 of us.” In an update at 1948 local time [1748 GMT], Copenhagen police said: “We are still heavily present at Fields and working to secure the entire building. If you’re still in the Fields, stay where you are and wait for the police.” The force has encouraged residents of Copenhagen and those who have been to the mall on Sunday to contact their relatives to let them know they are safe. Friends comfort each other after a shooting at a shopping mall in Copenhagen (Olafur Steinar Gestsson/Ritzau Scanpix via AP) (AP) The mall is close to the airport and less than a mile from a concert venue where Harry Styles was scheduled to perform at 8 p.m. The former One Direction star’s show was reportedly allowed to go ahead after a close call with police, but was delayed and eventually cancelled. Footage showed an announcer on stage telling fans the concert would not go ahead and police would escort them to the subway to leave the area. Styles wrote on Snapchat: “My team and I are praying for everyone involved in the Copenhagen mall shooting. I’m shocked. Love H.” Hans Christian Stolz, a 53-year-old IT consultant who brought his daughters to the Styles show, described the shooting as “pure horror”. “This is awful,” he said. “You might wonder how one person can do this to another human being, but it’s beyond anything possible.” An event in southern Denmark to celebrate the end of the first three stages of the Tour de France cycling race, organized by the Danish crown prince and attended by the prime minister, was also cancelled, the royal palace said on its website. In a joint statement, Queen Margrethe, her son Crown Prince Frederik and his wife Crown Princess Mary said: “We do not yet know the full extent of the tragedy, but it is already clear that more people have lost their lives and that even more were injured… The situation calls for unity and care.” The shooting came a week after a mass shooting in neighboring Norway, where police said a man opened fire during an LGBT+ festival, killing two people and injuring more than 20. The terrorist threat against Denmark is currently assessed as “serious”, with the biggest threat coming from “militant Islamism”, according to the latest report by the Danish Security and Intelligence Service. The threat to Denmark from far-right extremists is considered at a “general” level, meaning that there is capability and/or intent and possibly planning. Denmark last saw a militant attack in 2015, when a lone gunman shot and killed a man outside a cultural center hosting a debate on free speech, and later killed a person outside a synagogue in central Copenhagen . That gunman was killed in a shootout with the police. Additional reports from agencies
