Dozens detained on suspicion of preparing major terrorist attack in Denmark

Denmark’s police have arrested some two dozen people suspected of planning a massive terrorist attack “motivated by Islamism” in a large-scale nationwide operation.

Along with the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, law enforcement authorities launched a “comprehensive and coordinated” operation in at least six regions of the northern European country, including its capital Copenhagen. Police said the action was aimed at preventing allegedly planned “terrorist attacks with a militant, Islamist motive.”

The Danish media reported large forces of heavily armed police officers being deployed to the Copenhagen district of Valby and to Denmark’s fourth largest city Aalborg. It has not been officially confirmed, however, that these actions were linked to the operation.

Closer to evening, police called a press conference, announcing that a total of 20 residential areas in various parts of the country had been searched in a coordinated raid and at least 20 people were detained as a result.

The identities of those detained have not been revealed. Yet, the police confirmed that the suspects have procured some substances to manufacture explosives and were attempting to purchase weapons as well.

“It is our opinion that these individuals were driven by a militant Islamist motive,” Flemming Drejer, the chief of operations with the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, told journalists. Denmark’s security service has been closely following the activities of the suspects for quite some time, the officials said, adding that all of them were arrested and “none is still on the loose.”

“We are doing our best to combat this very serious crime,” Drejer said, adding that the successful raid still does not change the extent of the terror threat Denmark faces as “it still remains serious.”

Denmark experienced a major terrorist attack back in 2015 when three separate shootings took place over two days in Copenhagen. The incidents left three people dead, including the gunman, as well as five police officers injured. More than half a dozen planned terrorist attacks have been successfully thwarted by the Danish police and security services since 2006.

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