Copenhagen gunman suspect had 'history of violent crime'

Copenhagen police said the suspected gunman who was born and raised in Denmark was already "on the radar" of the intelligence services that they were investigating whether he had travelled to conflict zones such as Syria and Iraq.

"He may have been inspired by the events that took place in Paris a few weeks ago," Jens Madsen, head of the Danish intelligence agency PET added, referring to the attacks in Paris in which 17 people were killed, including four Jews.

The suspect, whose identity Danish police have not released, was shot and killed by police near his apartment building in the Noerrebro district on Sunday, bringing a manhunt of several hours to an end.

The Copenhagen shooter first attacked a panel discussion on Saturday evening, which was attended by Lars Vilks, a Swedish artist who has received death threats for satirizing the Prophet Muhammad in cartoons.

A 55-year-old man, later identified as documentary filmmaker Finn Noergaard, was killed in the attack and three police officers were wounded.

The suspect then went on to shoot a Jewish security guard outside Copenhagen's main synagogue in the early hours of Sunday morning, where around 80 people were celebrating a bat mitzvah. The guard, identified as 37-year-old Dan Uzan, later died of his injuries. Two police officers were slightly wounded in the second attack.

Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt has since urged Danish citizens to maintain a balanced perspective on what had happened.

"We don't know the motive for the attacks but we know that there are forces that want to harm Denmark, that want to crush our freedom of expression, our belief in liberty," she said.

Last weekend's attacks have revived fears of jihadist violence in Europe, which Germany also canceling a Carnival parade in the city of Braunschweig on Sunday after receiving information of a "concrete threat" of an attack with an "Islamist background."

ksb/kms (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)