Police: 2 arrested in connection with Copenhagen attacks

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Danish police said Monday that they have arrested two men suspected of helping the gunman who carried out two deadly shooting attacks over the weekend in Copenhagen.

Police in Copenhagen said the arrests were made on Sunday and that the two men will face a custody hearing on Monday.

The defense attorney for one of the two suspects, Michael Juul Eriksen, told public broadcaster DR that the two were accused of giving the gunman shelter and getting rid of a weapon.

The suspect killed two people in his weekend attacks, including a Danish filmmaker and a member of Denmark's Jewish community. He first opened fire Saturday at a cultural center hosting a seminar on free speech with an artist who had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad and then later at security forces outside a synagogue, police said. Hours later the suspect was killed in a gun battle with a SWAT team.

Police say the slain gunman was a 22-year-old with a history of violence and may have been inspired by Islamic terrorists and possibly by the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris. They have not yet released his name.

Earlier in the day, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the threat of militant attacks in the country remained "particularly high" and that exceptional security measures would remain in place as long as needed after attacks in Copenhagen.

France has deployed some 10,000 military personnel to protect public sites and announced thousands of new hires in the intelligence sector after 17 people were killed in a series of attacks by Islamist gunmen in January.

Valls said two attacks at the weekend in Copenhagen, which targeted a synagogue and a free speech event involving an artist who had caricatured Mohammad, underscored the need for prolonged action against what he called "Islamo-fascism".

Separately, French police opened an inquiry on Sunday after more than 200 tombs were damaged in a Jewish cemetery near the northeastern city of Strasbourg.

Valls called upon French Jews to remain in France and promised the "strongest possible" legal response after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called anew upon European Jews to emigrate to Israel after the Copenhagen attacks.

Valls said authorities believed the cemetery attacks were the work of several people but there were no firm leads at present.

REUTERS/AP