Icelanders in Copenhagen asked to let family know they're safe
People are in shock over the horrible shooting in the Danish Mall yesterday. AFP/Olafur Steinar Gestsson
The Embassy of Iceland in Copenhagen has asked Icelanders in the city to contact their family and let them know they are safe. People are horrified over the shooting in the Field Mall shooting yesterday where three people died,and three more are seriously wounded after a man in his twenties walked into the mall and started shooting at people. The incident is still being investigated.
The Embassy also asks people to follow the guidelines set by the Danish Police and follow the local media for updates.
"If anyone is in need the emergency line for civilians is + 354 545-0112. It is good to use social media to contact your near ones," is stated on the Facebook page of the Embassy.
Picture of the Fields shopping center taken in Copenhagen, on July 3, 2022, after a shooting took place in the shopping center. - Gunfire in a Copenhagen mall on July 3, 2022 left several dead and several wounded, Danish police said, adding they had arrested one person in his twenties. AFP/Claus Bech
Incomprehensible and meaningless violence
The Prime Minister, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, has sent her condolences over the tragedy and says that Icelanders always stand by their Danish family. On Twitter she wrote (in Danish): "Horrible news from Copenhagen tonight where lives are lost because of incomprehensible and meaningless violence. The Danish nation is in our minds tonight. We stand by you."
Two Icelandic girls in the mall at the time of the shooting
At the time of the attack, at 5:30 PM yesterday, there were two Icelandic girls working in the store Lindex in the Field's Mall in Copenhagen. Albert Þór Magnússon, the owner of Lindex in Iceland and a retail partner of the Lindex brand in Iceland says that the girls are unharmed, but in a severe shock.
The shop's manager lived in the neighbourhood of the Field's Mall and could get the girls and take them home in a taxi. Lindex has offered them trauma assistance.
"We are all in a shock over this horrible attack and are feeling really down," he says.
Thankful for not going early to the gym
Björn Bergsson from Iceland was on his bike on the way to the Field's Mall to go the gym when the attack occurred. He lives 300 metres away from the mall and if he had left his home a few minutes earlier he would have been in the mall when the shooter started shooting. He says he heard sirens when he was about to go on his bike towards the mall, but he never in a million years thought something horrible like this had happened.
People are seen running during the evacuation of the Fields shopping center in Copenhagen, Denmark, on July 3, 2022 after Danish media reported a shooting. AFP/Olafur Steinar Gestsson
"This had just happened when I got to the mall. Then I see crying people come running out of the mall and one woman told me what had happened while she sobbed uncontrollably."
Bergsson saw almost a 100 police cars on the premises, the special forces and other emergency vehicles.
"I am grateful that I was not already in the mall when this happened. If I had been half an hour earlier, I would have been there."
When he returned to his apartment, he decided to leave again because the Danish Police had closed off the quarter where his apartment is because of security concerns. He decided to leave and get out of the danger zone to follow the safety guidelines of the police.
At the time of mbl.is talking to him last night, he was still waiting to hear from the police that it would be safe to go back into the closed off quarter to his apartment.
