Copenhagen Jewish Community on High Alert After Multiple Terror Attacks

The Jewish community in Copenhagen, Denmark, remained in a state of high alert on Sunday, with many residents fearing to leave their homes after two people were killed and five wounded in two separate terrorist attacks in the nation’s capital the day before. A gunman who authorities said was behind the attacks was later killed in a shootout with police, who said it appears that he had been acting alone.

Just after midnight on Saturday, 22-year-old Omar El-Hussein opened fire outside the Great Synagogue in central Copenhagen, killing Dan Uzan, 38, who was helping guard a building adjacent to the synagogue, where more than 80 people were attending a bat mitzvah celebration. Two police officers were wounded in the attack; the gunman fled on foot before being killed by police in a shootout at a nearby train station.

The mother of the bat mitzvah girl told Israel’s Channel 2 news that guests and children fled to the synagogue’s basement after the gunman opened fire.

After hiding for two hours, the guests were taken out under heavy guard through a back door and put onto buses that took them to a police station, where they stayed until 8 a.m.

Dan Uzan, the security guard who was killed in front of the synagogue

The mother thanked the police and security guards for being “heroes” in ensuring the safety of the guests.

Rabbi Yitzchok Loewenthal, director of Chabad of Denmark, said he was at the synagogue only 30 minutes before the attack. “The Chabad House is in full lockdown,” Loewenthal wrote in a WhatsApp posting soon after the shooting. The rabbi wrote that he and his family were safe, but that “police with machine guns have now closed the Chabad House street at both ends. Helicopters and sirens all around. Barricaded all doors.”

Hours earlier, a 55-year-old man was killed and three police officers wounded in a local cafe at an event supporting the freedom of expression.

The terrorist had been “on the radar” of security officials and may have been inspired by the events that took place in Paris, according to Jens Madsen of Denmark’s Security and Intelligence Service. A terrorist killed four Jewish men and held dozens hostage at a kosher supermarket last month in Paris. Two days earlier, two brothers shot and killed 12 people at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The Copenhagen gunman may “generally have been inspired by militant Islamist propaganda issued by IS [Islamic State] and other terror organizations,” said Madsen, who added that police have not yet ascertained if the man had traveled to conflict zones, “including Syria and Iraq.” Madsen said it was at “the absolute center of investigations.”

“There are a number of things indicating we have the right perpetrator, but our technical investigation isn’t complete, so we cannot be 100 percent sure,” said Jørgen Skov, head of the Copenhagen police. “There is nothing to suggest that several perpetrators are involved.”

Attacks Shake Denmark

Copenhagen police spokesman Allan Teddy Wadsworth-Hansen said officers were posted outside the synagogue when “a person came up and started to shoot.” That was followed by a succession of six or seven gunshots, he added.

“Within a minute or so, armed police were on the scene and a helicopter was hovering overhead,” reported Pete Milnes, a cameraman for Sky News. Twenty to 30 police officers with assault rifles arrived at the scene, shouting at residents to stay indoors and close all windows.

Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt visited the synagogue following yesterday’s attacks, and said “we will do everything we can to protect our Jewish community.”

After the earlier shooting at an event titled “Art, Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression,” Thorning-Schmidt confirmed the shooting as a terrorist attack and declared the entire country to be on high alert.

“We feel certain now that it’s a politically motivated attack, and thereby, it is a terrorist attack. Our main priority at this stage is to catch the perpetrators and make sure that we find them as soon as possible,” she said.

Expressing “deep anger,” she vowed that all “resources will be used to find the perpetrators and bring them before a judge.”

She also acknowledged that “we have some difficult days ahead.”

The shooting took place outside the Great Synagogue, above, in central Copenhagen, Denmark.