A shooting at a Copenhagen shopping mall has left at least three people dead, police say
As of Sunday, local officials in Copenhagen reported that three people had been killed in a shooting at a shopping centre. The other casualties include many others who were injured, three of whom are in extremely serious condition at local hospitals.
On Sunday, many gunshots were heard from different areas within Field’s, a retail mall in Copenhagen, Denmark. Video posted online shows panicked shoppers fleeing the mall and cops arriving on the scene armed to the teeth.
Copenhagen Police Chief Soren Thomassen told reporters early on Monday that the casualties include “a man in his 40s and two young people.”
According to Thomassen, a young Danish male was detained in “undramatic fashion” in connection with the shooting.
Police “We are convinced that the 22-year-old suspect arrested was the shooter, he was carrying a rifle and ammunition,” he said, adding that they are “believe the suspect was not working with others, but that until they are absolutely certain they will not rule it out.”
According to Thomassen, police were able to locate and apprehend the offender just 13 minutes after receiving the initial 911 call reporting the incident.
Danish politician and athlete Joachim Olsen, who was on his way to the mall’s gym at the time, described seeing big groups of individuals leaving the complex
Olsen remarked that the scene resembled the aftermath of a school shooting in the United States: “It looked like something, I’m sorry to say, like something you would see from a school shooting in the US, people coming out with their hands above their heads,”
He said that those who had left the building were likely contacting or trying to contact loved ones who were still inside. “Old people with their arms around the necks of people carrying them out, their feet just being dragged across the floor.”
Olsen met a man outside the shopping centre who told him he would spoken to an off-duty paramedic whose arms “were covered in blood up to his elbows.”
“He wanted to go back in but the police wouldn’t let him,” Olsen added.
Olsen said that mall security sought to direct the people elsewhere.
“At one point we were rushed away. The police came and said ‘Run, run, run, they’re still shooting in there.'”