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Danish police carry out major operation over ‘terror attack plot’

Police in Denmark on Wednesday arrested up to 20 people in a major anti-terror operation at several locations in the country.

Danish police carry out major operation over 'terror attack plot'
Photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

A number of the arrested individuals are reported to be suspected of terrorism offences.

“The reason for this operation is the suspicion of preparation to carry out terrorist attacks with a militant, Islamist motive,” Copenhagen Police said in a press statement on Wednesday.

In a brief tweet earlier in the day, police wrote that several police districts were involved in the action, which was led by Copenhagen Police.

The operation included “searches and arrests… in several parts of the country,” the tweet read.

Six police districts confirmed to broadcaster DR that they have were part of the operation: Copenhagen West Police, North Jutland Police, Funen Police, Central and West Jutland Police, and Central and West Zealand Police, as well as Copenhagen Police.

East Jutland Police confirmed to TV2 that it had also been involved.

Police operations have been reported in northern city Aalborg as well as in Valby and Herlev near Copenhagen, although it is currently unconfirmed whether these are part of the same case.

In Aalborg, two men were led away in white suits by armoured police, newspaper B.T. reported. It is also unclear whether this is related to the Copenhagen Police action.

In Valby, witnesses told B.T. they had seen a vehicle from bomb disposal unit EOD.

Copenhagen Police and police intelligence service PET are scheduled to give more detail at a press briefing which is ongoing at the time of writing.

At the briefing, Copenhagen Police chief inspector Jørgen Bergen Skov said that police “now have the situation under control”, with all suspects in the case now arrested and none remaining at large.

Some of the arrested individuals had “acquired components for making explosives or attempted to acquire firearms”, Skov also said.

Preliminary court hearings for some of those arrested are likely to take place on Thursday, the inspector confirmed.

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PROTESTS

Clashes mar rally against far right in north-west France

Riot police clashed with demonstrators in the north-western French city of Rennes on Thursday in the latest rally against the rise of the far-right ahead of a national election this month.

Clashes mar rally against far right in north-west France

The rally ended after dozens of young demonstrators threw bottles and other projectiles at police, who responded with tear gas.

The regional prefecture said seven arrests were made among about 80 people who took positions in front of the march through the city centre.

The rally was called by unions opposed to Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National party (RN), which is tipped to make major gains in France’s looming legislative elections. The first round of voting is on June 30.

“We express our absolute opposition to reactionary, racist and anti-Semitic ideas and to those who carry them. There is historically a blood division between them and us,” Fabrice Le Restif, regional head of the FO union, one of the organisers of the rally, told AFP.

Political tensions have been heightened by the rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a Paris suburb, for which two 13-year-old boys have been charged. The RN has been among political parties to condemn the assault.

Several hundred people protested against anti-Semitism and ‘rape culture’ in Paris in the latest reaction.

Dominique Sopo, president of anti-racist group SOS Racisme, said it was “an anti-Semitic crime that chills our blood”.

Hundreds had already protested on Wednesday in Paris and Lyon amid widespread outrage over the assault.

The girl told police three boys aged between 12 and 13 approached her in a park near her home in the Paris suburb of Courbevoie on Saturday, police sources said.

She was dragged into a shed where the suspects beat and raped her, “while uttering death threats and anti-Semitic remarks”, one police source told AFP.

France has the largest Jewish community of any country outside Israel and the United States.

At Thursday’s protest, Arie Alimi, a lawyer known for tackling police brutality and vice-president of the French Human Rights League, said voters had to prevent the far-right from seizing power and “installing a racist, anti-Semitic and sexist policy”.

But he also said he was sad to hear, “anti-Semitic remarks from a part of those who say they are on the left”.

President Emmanuel Macron called the elections after the far-right thrashed his centrist alliance in European Union polls. The far-right and left-wing groups have accused each other of being anti-Semitic.

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