Injuries in second Copenhagen shooting

SEVERAL people have been injured by shots fired near a synagogue in Copenhagen, hours after a deadly shooting at a cafe in the city.

In the second shooting one person was hit in the head, and two police officers suffered arm and leg injuries. The attacker is believed to have fled.

Earlier, a gunman killed one person and injured three at a free speech debate attended by a Swedish cartoonist.

It is not clear if the two shootings are connected.

The second shooting took place on Krystalgade street, about 5km (three miles) from the scene of the first attack.

Danish police were were quoted by the AFP news agency as saying the perpetrator had fled on foot. They said they could not give details about the injuries.

For now, police have not linked the two attacks, the BBC’s Malcolm Brabant reports from Copenhagen.

But he says that the Danish capital has been abuzz with sirens and helicopters, amid fears that other attacks could be imminent.

The police have warned residents that it is not safe to be in the city centre.

Police launched a massive manhunt after the first shooting.

Officials said the gunman made his getaway by car, and a black Volkswagen Polo was later found abandoned a short distance away from the scene, police said.

Police released photographs showing the alleged attacker apparently wearing a purple balaclava and thick puffer jacket.

Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt described the first attack as a “politically motivated” act of terrorism.

Cartoonist Lars Vilks, who has faced death threats over his caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, said he believed he was the intended target of the attack. He was unhurt.

The French ambassador, Francois Zimeray, was also present during the attack.

On a personal website of Lars Vilks, the debate was described as a talk on whether any limits should be placed on artistic expression or freedom of speech.

A description of the event asked whether artists could “dare” to be blasphemous in the wake of attacks by Islamist gunmen in Paris last month against satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

In the French attacks, two gunmen opened fire at Charlie Hebdo’s office, shooting dead 12 people. Two days later, a suspected accomplice of the militants took hostages at a Jewish shop, killing four of them.

All three attackers were eventually shot dead by police and security services.