Danish police kill suspect in terror attacks

Danish police have shot dead a man in Copenhagen they believe was the perpetrator of shootings in which two people were killed and five were wounded.

Police said they also believed the same person was behind both attacks.

Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said the first shooting, which bore similarities to an attack in Paris in January on the office of the weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, was a terrorist attack.

One man died in the first attack, on an arts cafe hosting controversial artist Lars Vilks, and another died in an attack on a synagogue close by.

The suspect was tracked down with the aid of images from CCTV cameras and information from a taxi driver who dropped a man at an address in Norrebro, a predominantly immigrant area.

Police staked out the residence and shouted out to him as he turned. He then reportedly pulled out a gun and fired at police, who returned fire and killed him.

More details have also emerged of the attack on the synagogue. A Jewish girl's coming-of-age ceremony was taking place inside. There were about 80 guests, including 19 children.

The Jewish community had asked for protection in the wake of the attack on the cafe. Two policemen were despatched and the gunman wounded them and killed a Jewish man in his 30s, who was responsible for security at the complex.

Denmark's Jewish community identified the Jewish victim as 37-year-old Dan Uzan. 

He was guarding a building behind the synagogue when he was attacked.

Denmark's chief rabbi Jair Melchior said Mr Uzan was an "irreplaceable" security guard protecting the city's Jewish community.

"He was a person who was always willing to help. An amazing, amazing guy," he said.

Mr Vilks is a Swede who has been threatened with death for his cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

It was not clear if the two attacks were carried out by the same person or people.

Police were unable to apprehend the attacker in both incidents, launching a massive manhunt with helicopters roaring overhead and an array of armoured vehicles on the usually peaceful streets of Copenhagen.

By 5am Irish time today, police said they had fired shots and later confirmed they killed a man in Norrebro, an area in Copenhagen not far from the sites of the two attacks.

They did not confirm any link between the man they shot and the earlier attacks or give further details. Police officials were not available for comment.

French Ambassador Francois Zimeray attended the cafe event and praised Denmark's support for freedom of speech following the January attack in Paris on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper that killed a dozen people.

Witnesses said the envoy had barely finished an introduction to the meeting when up to 40 shots rang out, outside the venue, as an attacker tried to shoot inside.

Police said they considered Mr Vilks, the main speaker, to have been the target. A 55-year-old man died as a result of that shooting.

"We feel certain now that it was a politically motivated attack, and thereby it was a terrorist attack," the Danish prime minister told journalists, speaking yesterday close to the site of the cafe.

Hours later, during the night, shots were fired at a synagogue in another part of the city, about a half-hour walk away from the cafe.

A man was shot in the head, and was later confirmed to have died. Two police officers were wounded.

In Paris on 17 January brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi burst into the office of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and opened fire in revenge for its satirical images of the Prophet Mohammad.

In all, 17 people were killed over three days of violence in France.

European Council President Donald Tusk called Saturday's attack "another brutal terrorist attack targeted at our fundamental values and freedoms, including the freedom of expression".

Helle Merete Brix, organiser of the event at the cafe, told Reuters news agency she had seen an attacker wearing a mask.

"The security guards shouted 'Everyone get out!' and we were being pushed out of the room," Ms Brix said.

"They tried to shoot their way into the conference room ... I saw one of them running by, wearing a mask. There was no way to tell his face," she added.

Denmark itself became a target after the publication ten years ago of cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammad, images which led to sometimes fatal protests in the Muslim world.

Many Muslims consider any representation of the Prophet Mohammad blasphemous.

Mr Vilks stirred controversy himself in 2007 with his drawings depicting Mohammad as a dog, triggering numerous death threats.

He has lived under the protection of Swedish police since 2010. Two years ago, an American woman was sentenced to ten years in prison in the United States for plotting to kill him.

French President Francois Hollande said Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve would go to the Danish capital later today

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged European Jews to move to Israel after a Jewish man was killed in the attack outside Copenhagen's main synagogue.

"Israel is your home. We are preparing and calling for the absorption of mass immigration from Europe," Mr Netanyahu said in a statement, repeating a similar call made after bloody attacks by Islamic extremists in Paris last month that killed 17 people, including four Jews.

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