Copenhagen double attack perpetrator identified

The alleged perpetrator of the double terrorist attack in the Danish capital Copenhagen was identified as a 22-year-old man, born in Denmark, who had a known criminal past.

Police said in a press release that the man was known for several crimes, including those related to contraventions of the Weapons Act and violence, according to a Xinhua report.

The Danish Security and Intelligence Agency (PET) said Sunday that it had prior knowledge of the alleged perpetrator.

The man was shot dead by the police Sunday, after he unleashed mayhem in Copenhagen over Saturday and Sunday, killing two people and injuring five police officers, in two separate attacks.

The first attack targeted a cafe Saturday, where the controversial Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks and French Ambassador to Denmark Francois Zimeray were attending an event on "Art, Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression". A 55-year-old man was killed in the attack, while three police officers were wounded.

Vilks had courted controversy for his objectionable portrayals of the Prophet Muhammad and has been under police protection since 2007.

The second attack targeted Copenhagen's main synagogue Sunday, in which one person died and two police officers were injured.

According to police, the man, believed to be responsible for both the attacks, was killed in a shootout in Copenhagen's Norrebro district. Video footage confirmed that the same man had carried out both the attacks.

The attacks in Copenhagen is believed to have parallels with an attack on the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in the French capital Paris last month, in which Islamists killed 12 people, including the magazine's editor, purportedly to seek revenge for unfavourable caricatures of Prophet Muhammad.