COPENHAGEN // Danish police killed a gunman suspected of murdering two people and conducted raids across the capital after terrorist attacks left the nation in shock.
The suspect was killed early Sunday after he opened fire on officers who had tracked him down in Copenhagen.
Police said the man is from the Danish capital, declining to identify him further, but Danish broadcaster TV2 reported that he was a 22-year-old who was born and raised in Denmark. The TV station said he was known to police due to his involvement in gangs.
He is suspected of being the lone gunman in shootings that killed one person at a cafe hosting a free-speech debate and another victim at a separate attack at a synagogue hours later.
Police also raided an internet cafe near the final shooting and several arrests were made, local media reported.
"Denmark has been hit by terror," prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said. "There are many questions police are still working on to try to answer."
The attacks, just five weeks after the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, started with a burst of gunfire on Saturday afternoon at a cultural centre in the wealthy Oesterbro district.
The gathering to debate the role of art and free speech was organised by Swedish artist Lars Vilks, best known for a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed. Mr Vilks, who is under police protection, was rushed to safety.
A 55-year-old man, identified as a film maker who had probably been at the cafe to listen to the debate, was killed while three police officers were injured.
The suspect could have been "inspired by the recent events in Paris" or by ISIL, said Jens Madsen, head of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, or PET.
"The person has been on PET's radar. It was someone we knew.
In a second attack just after midnight Sunday, a Jewish man, 37, was killed outside a synagogue. Two police officers that had been called in as increased security were also injured. The congregation was hosting a Bat Mitzvah at the time, with 80 guests on the scene.
The community "is in shock over the attack" but our thoughts go first and foremost to our member's family and to the wounded police officers and their families, the Jewish Community, an umbrella group, said.
Denmark's Islamic Council condemned the attacks.
Police used video surveillance and the help of a taxi driver to track down the suspect. Police staked out a location just northwest of the city centre. The man was killed after firing on police when he returned.
The massacre last month at Charlie Hebdo in Paris by radical extremists fueled debate on how Europe is dealing with challenges posed by immigration. As in France, Denmark's anti-immigration group – the Danish People's Party – has surged in the polls.
France sent its condolences on Saturday.
Denmark has "all the solidarity of France in this ordeal," said president Francois Hollande's office.
The US condemned the attack as "deplorable".
"We have been in close contact with our Danish counterparts and stand ready to lend any assistance necessary to the investigation," National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said.
This was an "appalling" attack on free speech and the freedom of religion, UK prime minister David Cameron said. "Denmark and Britain are both successful multi-ethnic, multi-faith democracies and we must never allow those values to be damaged by acts of violence like this," he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Ms Thorning-Schmidt to express her "deep condolences and empathy for the victims' families".
Denmark is home to the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which in 2005 published a series of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that triggered violent protests across much of the Muslim world.
Mr Vilks's drawing depicting the prophet with the body of a dog left Swedish media divided, with some refusing to publish the image amid security concerns.
The 68-year-old is kept under police protection. In January last year, Colleen LaRose, an American was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her role in a plot to murder the Swedish artist. LaRose had pleaded guilty in February 2011 to conspiring to provide support to terrorists and commit murder in a foreign country.
* Bloomberg, additional reporting from Agence France-Presse
Police kill Copenhagen gunman suspected of terror attacks
Gunman was killed in a firefight early on Sunday with police after shootings at a cultural centre and synagogue killed two people.
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