Blasts, shooting around Israeli embassies in Nordic capitals

COPENHAGEN: Police in Denmark and Sweden said on Wednesday (Oct 2) they were probing attacks around Israeli embassies in their capitals which took place as Middle East tensions spiral.
In Denmark, police said three people had been arrested after twin blasts were reported in the “immediate proximity” of the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen in the early hours of Wednesday.
“Two men were arrested on a train at Copenhagen Central Station. In addition, earlier in the day we arrested a man elsewhere in Copenhagen,” police said in a post on the X social media platform.
Swedish police confirmed that the Israeli embassy in Stockholm had been targeted in a shooting on Tuesday just before 6pm.
No injuries were reported in either incident.
“It’s too early to say if there is a link” between the blasts and the Israeli embassy, Danish police spokesman Jakob Hansen said of the Copenhagen incidents.
By mid-morning, the area in Copenhagen was cordoned off and police were working at the scene, an AFP correspondent observed.
Denmark’s intelligence service, PET, said it was monitoring events “closely” and assisting the police investigation.
“We are also in dialogue with the Israeli embassy about security, and are constantly assessing the scale of the security measures already implemented in relation to a number of Jewish locations,” PET said in a statement to AFP.
Writing on X, Israel’s ambassador to Denmark David Akov said he was “shocked by the appalling incident near the embassy a few hours ago.”
Swedish police said in a statement that information indicated the embassy building had been hit by shots.
“We’ve made finds that indicate a shooting at Israel’s embassy, but we don’t want to disclose exactly what finds have been made since there is an ongoing investigation,” Rebecca Landberg, Stockholm police press officer, told AFP.
Landberg added that an investigation had been opened into an aggravated weapons offence, endangerment of others and unlawful threats.
Police had made no arrests, but Landberg said police were actively gathering and analysing material from the many surveillance cameras in the area.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, several incidents apparently targeting Israeli interests in Sweden have been reported.
In February, police found a grenade on the grounds of the Israeli embassy compound, which the ambassador said was an attempted attack.
In May, gunshots were fired outside the Israeli embassy, which prompted the country to boost security around Israeli interests and Jewish community institutions.
The incidents in the Scandinavian countries came as tensions in the Middle East are spiralling, with Iran firing missiles at Israel which has vowed to make Iran “pay” for the attack.