Copenhagen police confirm identity of attacks gunman

Copenhagen, Feb 18: Copenhagen police has confirmed the identity of the suspected gunman behind the weekend's double shooting as 22-year-old Omar El-Hussein.

Police also said that in his first attack, on Saturday, he had unsuccessfully tried to use several entrances to a cultural centre that was hosting a debate on Islam and free speech attended by controversial Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks.

"The Copenhagen police can now confirm the reports published by the press about the alleged perpetrator's identity," it said in a statement yesterday. El-Hussein, a Danish-born man of Palestinian origin, was killed in a shootout with police early Sunday after opening fire at the cultural centre, killing a filmmaker, after which he shot dead a Jewish man outside a synagogue.

Five police were injured in the attacks. "Questioning and technical investigation shows that the perpetrator upon his arrival at the site first tried to come in through other entrances than the main entrance," police said of the first attack.

El-Hussein, a Danish-born man of Palestinian origin, was killed in a shootout

On the street outside the cultural centre where the event was being held he met his first victim, whom he shot with a weapon later found on a football field at Mjoelnerparken, the low-income housing estate where he grew up, it said.

Two weapons were used in the attack outside the synagogue, both of which were found on El-Hussein when he was shot dead.

PTI