COPENHAGEN: At least three people were killed and several others injured in a shooting at a shopping mall in Copenhagen on Sunday, the Danish police said.

“Three people have been killed and several others injured in the shooting. Those killed are a man in his forties, a young man and a young woman,” the police said in a statement. “The police are working to get them identified and get the relatives informed.”

Suspect arrested

The police have arrested the suspect, who is identified to be a 22-year-old Danish man, near the highway exit. He is now in police custody.

The suspect would be produced in constitutional interrogation on Monday, it said. The exact time is not yet known but will be announced on Twitter on Monday morning.

“Our preliminary investigation continues to indicate that the perpetrator acted on his own,” Chief Police Inspector Soren Thomassen said, “we are in the process of a massive and very extensive investigation, which will continue throughout the night and in the coming days.”

The inspector was of the view that terrorism could not be ruled out, adding that so far they don’t have any information about the people involved in it.

Terrified people

Pictures showed terrified people running out of the site. One of the images, which was shared by local media, showed a man being placed on a stretcher. Eyewitnesses told reporters that people were crying and hiding in shops.

Laurits Hermansen told Danish broadcaster DR that he was in a clothing store at the shopping centre with his family when he heard “three, four bangs. Really loud bangs. It sounded like the shots were being fired just next to the store.”

The shopping centre is on the outskirts of the capital city just. A major highway also runs adjacent to the mall. The police received a report of a shooting in Field’s on Amager at 05.35.

‘Cruel attack’

“Denmark was hit by a cruel attack on Sunday night. Several were killed. Even more wounded. Innocent families shopping or eating out. Children, adolescents and adults,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement late on Sunday.

“Our beautiful and usually so safe capital was changed in a split second,” she said and encouraged the Danes to stand together and support each other in such difficult time.

“We have all been brutally torn out of the bright summer we had just begun. It is incomprehensible. Heartbreaking. Pointless.”

‘Ready to help’

“Terrible reports of shooting in fields. We do not yet know for sure how many are injured or dead, but it is very serious. The emergency preparedness in has been called. We are ready to help,” Sophie H Andersen, the mayor of Copenhagen, said in a tweet.

In a tweet, the police said that roadblocks at exit 19 on the Amager motorway and at Vejlands Allé have been lifted and traffic can run unhindered. But, fields remain closed.

‘Crisis help’

The shopping centre in a statement on its website said that all employees at Field’s and Steen & Strom who should need to speak to a professional have been offered crisis help.

“Our thoughts are with the victims of this horrific incident and their relatives as well as all the staff and the many customers who visited Field’s today. Police are still investigating this senseless incident and we are awaiting their instructions,” it said.