A 22-year-old man suspected of killing three people at a shopping centre in Denmark’s capital Copenhagen has been charged with murder.
Two Danish citizens, both aged 17, and a 47-year-old Russian citizen were killed in Sunday’s attack.
Police said the suspect had mental health issues and there is no indication of a terror motive.
He had a rifle and a knife and his shooting was random – “not motivated by gender or anything else”
The suspect appeared in front of a court in a blue T-shirt accompanied by three heavily armed officers, Danish media report.
The suspect’s lawyers refused to enter a plea for the accused while the media were present and the judge ordered the rest of the hearing to be behind closed doors. The judge also imposed a name ban on both the suspect and the victims.
The suspect will be remanded in a closed psychiatric ward for 24 days, authorities said.
Speaking to reporters earlier on Monday, police chief Soeren Thomassen said they believed the suspect – described as “an ethnic Dane” was acting alone and was not helped by anyone else.
He added that the suspect was known “peripherally” to police.
Four people were seriously wounded in the attack.
Two are Danish citizens – a 40-year-old woman and a 19-year-old woman. The other two are Swedes – a 50-year-old man and a 16-year old woman.
One remains in critical condition, the chief physician at one of the hospitals treating some of the victims said, giving no further details.
Three others were hit by stray bullets, taking the total number of people shot to 10, police said.
Of the 10 shot, six were women and four were men, police inspector Dannie Rise told reporters. One of those shot was an Afghan national, she added.
The deadly attack began at Field’s shopping mall at around 17:35 (15:35 GMT) local time on Sunday, according to police reports.
The multi-story shopping centre – one of the biggest in Denmark – is near a secondary school as well as a large student-housing block, and is often full of young people.
Editing by Omotola Oguneye