Copenhagen gunman filmed carrying rifle over shoulder before opening fire and killing three people

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

Chilling footage has emerged of a gunman strolling around a Copenhagen shopping centre with a rifle over his shoulder before killing three people.

A 17-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl, both Danes, and a 47-year-old Russian man living in Denmark were killed when the gunman opened fire on Sunday afternoon in the Field’s shopping centre, one of Scandinavia’s biggest.

Four other people - two Danish and two Swedish - are also in a critical but stable condition after being hit by gunshots.

A 22-year-old Danish man has been arrested and is expected to appear in court on Monday on preliminary charges of murder.

Mobile phone footage captured inside the shopping centre shows the alleged gunman wearing knee-length shorts, a dark sleeveless shirt and holding what appears to be a rifle in his right hand.

A shot can be heard ringing out, followed by people shouting as music continues to play in the background.

The man hoists the large gun on to his right shoulder before turning and running in the opposite direction.

Eyewitness Mahdi Al-Wazni told Danish broadcaster TV2: “He seemed very violent and angry.

“He spoke to me and said it [the rifle] isn’t real as I was filming him. He seemed very proud of what he was doing.”

Several people received minor injuries as they fled the shopping centre in panic, police said.

After the shooting, a large contingent of heavily armed police officers patrolled the area, with several fire department vehicles also parked outside the mall.

Copenhagen chief police inspector Soren Thomassen said police believe the gunman acted alone and selected his victims at random. The shooting is not currently being treated as terror-related.

“There is nothing in our investigation, or the documents we have reviewed, or the things we have found, or the witnesses’ statements we have gotten, that can substantiate that this is an act of terrorism,” he said.

He confirmed the suspect was known to mental health services but provided no further information.

Mr Thomassen said in addition to the rifle the suspect had when detained, “we also know that he has had access to a gun and that he carried a knife”.

The Field’s shopping centre is on the outskirts of Copenhagen just across from a subway station for a line that connects the city centre with the international airport. A major highway also runs adjacent to the mall.

Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen called Sunday’s shooting a “cruel attack”.

“It is incomprehensible. Heartbreaking. Pointless,” she said. “Our beautiful and usually so safe capital was changed in a split second.”

It is the worst gun attack in Denmark since February 2015, when a 22-year-old man was killed in a shootout with police after going on a shooting spree in the capital that left two people dead and five police officers wounded.

That attack was believed to have been motivated by Islamic extremism.

Additional reporting by agencies