COPENHAGEN, July 4 (Reuters) – The man responsible for a shooting at a Copenhagen shopping mall that left three dead and several injured was jailed for 24 days on Monday after facing preliminary questioning in a city court, police said. danish
The 22-year-old Danish man, who on Sunday afternoon opened fire on shoppers at Field’s shopping mall, a few miles south of central Copenhagen, has been arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter and intent to kill.
He will remain in custody in a locked psychiatric ward, authorities said.
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The incident rocked Denmark at the end of a week in which it hosted the first three stages of the Tour de France cycling race and hundreds of thousands of Danes took to the streets across the country.
The shooter, whose name is subject to a publication ban, shot and killed two 17-year-olds, a man and a woman, and a 47-year-old Russian citizen living in Denmark. Four other people also sustained gunshot wounds.
Three of them were now stable and one remained in critical condition, a health official with the Danish emergency medical services said.
Among the injured were two Swedish citizens, a 50-year-old man and a 16-year-old woman.
The incident could not be seen as an “act of terror” based on current evidence, Police Chief Soren Thomassen told reporters on Monday, adding there was no indication the suspect had acted in concert with others.
“There has been some kind of deliberation and preparation (by the suspect) leading up to this terrible event,” Thomassen told a news conference without elaborating on the possible motives of the perpetrator.
“Our current assessment is that these are random casualties.”
Several people were slightly injured fleeing the scene, but not from gunshots.
The attack took place as many young people flocked to the mall ahead of British singer Harry Styles’s concert in Copenhagen on Sunday night, not far from the mall. The concert was cancelled. read more
“I am heartbroken along with the people of Copenhagen. I love this city. The people are so warm and full of love. I am devastated for the victims, their families and all who suffer,” Styles wrote on Twitter.
“I’m sorry we can’t be together. Please take care of yourselves.”
The suspect, who police say was known to psychiatrists in Denmark, was in possession of a rifle, ammunition and a knife when he was arrested.
Danish gun laws are strict and all weapons, with the exception of some hunting rifles, require a license issued by the police. The type of weapons used by the suspect had been legal, police said, but the shooter was not licensed to use them.
Denmark’s largest cinema operator, Nordisk Film, which has a headquarters in the Field shopping mall, said it had decided to close its cinemas across the country on Monday due to the shooting.
Copenhagen police will hold another press conference on the ongoing investigation at 16:00 local time (15:00 GMT).
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Reporting by Stine Jacobsen and Nikolaj Skydsgaard, editing by Anna Ringstrom and Ed Osmond
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