COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Denmark raised its terror attack preparedness yesterday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, after a man set off a small explosion in a Copenhagen hotel on Friday.
Daily newspaper Ekstrabladet, citing police sources, said police had found a map with the address of daily Jyllands-Posten’s headquarters in the city of Arhus circled among the man’s belongings.
Jyllands-Posten’s publication in 2005 of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad provoked protests in the Middle East, Africa and Asia in which at least 50 people died.
Last year a plot to attack the paper was unveiled and in January the creator of the most controversial cartoon escaped an axe attack by a man with al Qaeda links.
A Copenhagen court ruled yesterday the man would be detained in custody until Oct. 4 on suspicion of aiming to put others’ lives at risk, a police spokesman said.
“With an overall assessment of the information, we cannot rule out that preparation for something terror-related has occurred,” Copenhagen Chief Police Inspector Jorn Aabye told a news conference.
Jakob Scharf, head of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET), said in a statement: “There are circumstances that point in the direction of an unsuccessful terror attack”.
They did not elaborate but said it could also not be ruled out that the man had accomplices.