ZAKA volunteers head for Copenhagen after attacks

At the request of Jewish community leaders in Copenhagen, ZAKA International Rescue Unit Chief Officer Mati Goldstein and ZAKA International Rescue Unit Chief of Operations Chaim Weingarten were scheduled to leave Sunday for Denmark, following a shooting at a free-speech event Saturday and another attack hours later outside a synagogue in the Danish capital.

On arrival, the two officials will work in cooperation with local emergency forces and will help ensure a full Jewish burial for the victim of the attack at the synagogue. The victim was confirmed on Sunday to be a Jewish security guard who was working at the synagogue at the time of the attack. The man, whose identity was not made public, was reported to have prevented a much larger attack at the site, according to Israel Radio.

Mati Goldstein led the ZAKA International Rescue Unit delegation to Paris a month ago following the terror attacks at the Charlie Hebdo magazine offices and at the HyperCacher supermarket.

On Sunday, Copenhagen police fired shots near a train station earlier in the day, killing one person who was believed to be behind the two attacks that left a total of 2 people killed and 5 wounded.

The first shooting happened shortly before 4 p.m. Saturday. Danish police said the gunman used an automatic weapon to shoot through the windows of the Krudttoenden center during a panel discussion on freedom of expression following the Paris attacks. A 55-year-old man attending the event was killed, while three police officers were wounded. Two belonged to the Danish security service PET, which said the circumstances surrounding the shooting “indicate that we are talking about a terror attack.”

The gunman then fled in a carjacked Volkswagen Polo that was later found a few kilometers away, police said.

After searching for the first gunman for hours, police reported the second shooting in downtown Copenhagen after midnight Sunday. Copenhagen Police spokesman Wadsworth-Hansen said that gunman opened fire at two police officers outside the synagogue. They were wounded in the arms and legs but were not in life-threatening condition, while a civilian man was killed. The gunman fled on foot.

Police initially said there were two gunmen at the cultural center but later said they believed there was only one shooter. They described him as 25-30 years old with an athletic build and carrying a black automatic weapon. They released a blurred photograph of the suspect wearing dark clothes and a scarf covering part of his face.

Visiting the scene of the first shooting, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt called it a “political attack and therefore an act of terror.”

Parts of the Danish capital were cordoned off after the shooting near the synagogue, but “it’s not a question of a general curfew. People are allowed to travel around Copenhagen, safely,” Wadsworth-Hansen said.

The Danish Emergency Management Agency urged people in central Copenhagen to text “I’m okay” to their families in a post on its Twitter account.

Last month, four Jewish men were killed in a terror attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris, days after the Charlie Hebdo attack.

AFP and AP contributed to this report.