Danish authorities say they have arrested four people — three in Denmark and a fourth in the Netherlands — and carried out searches across the country to counter what they said was a planned terror attack.
At a Copenhagen news conference Thursday, Danish Security and Intelligence Service Director Flemming Drejer told reporters the arrests and searches both in Denmark and the Netherlands were part of an intensive investigation and that the operation was carried out in “close collaboration with our foreign partner.” He said searches are continuing.
Drejer said the three people arrested in Denmark with be charged with terror-related charges, adding: “I can also say that there are connections with the world gangs, links to the banned organization LTF, Loyal to Familia, [a banned Danish street gang] and to people staying in Denmark and abroad."
Explaining that he could not go into more detail about targets or motives for the planned attack, he added, “I would say, of course, to be aware of Jewish places of interest.”
Hours later, the Israeli prime minister’s office released a joint announcement from Israel’s Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, known as Mossad, and Israel Securities Authority, commending Danish security and law enforcement authorities for their arrests.
But the release added that Danish officials “arrested seven terrorists acting on behalf of the Hamas terrorist organization, and thwarted an attack, the goal of which was to kill innocent civilians on European soil.”
Danish officials have so far not commented on the statement and there has been no explanation regarding the discrepancies in the number of those arrested.
Earlier Thursday, speaking about the arrests on the sidelines of a European Union summit in Brussels, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, told reporters the situation was extremely serious.
She said, "It is of course — in relation to Israel and Gaza — completely unacceptable for someone to bring a conflict elsewhere in the world into Danish society."
On Tuesday, Danish police raised the terrorism alert level to 4 on a scale of 5. They said Thursday that is where it remains.
Some information for this report was provide by the Associated Press, Reuters and the French news agency, AFP.
