"An attack on the Jewish community is an attack on Denmark," Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said Monday as she addressed the weekend’ deadly attacks in Copenhagen.
''We wouldn't be the same without the Jewish community in Denmark,’’ she said.
”We will do everything possible to protect our Jewish community,” she added.
A gunman opened fire at a free speech event and a synagogue in the Danish capital. Two people were killed in the attacks, including a Danish filmmaker attending the free speech event and a Jewish security guard, 37-year-old Dan Uzan, shot in the head outside the synagogue.
Five police officers were wounded in the attacks. Police later shot and killed the man suspected of carrying out the attacks, Omar El-Hussein a 22-year-old Dane of Palestinian origin with a history of violence. . It was the country's first fatal terror attack in 30 years.
“He was consumed with hatred of Jews and was very aggressive when he talked about the Israel-Palestine conflict,’’ said a former classmate of El-Hussein.
Thorning-Schmidt said the gunman wasn't part of an organized cell and that there were no signs of links to a wider terror network.
She also denied the synagogue wasn’t sufficiently protected and encouraged Denmark’s Jewish community to stay in the country.
“I want to make very clear that the Jewish community has been in this country for centuries,” the Prime Minister said. “They belong in Denmark. They’re part of the Danish community and we wouldn’t be the same without the Jewish community.”
Her comments came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu called for Europe’s Jews to immigrate to Israel.
Copenhagen’s Chief Rabbi Yair Melchior rejected the idea that Jews should leave Denmark.
“The terrorists must not control our lives,” he said. “We need to concentrate on living our lives as normally as possible after this difficult situation. The Jewish community in Copenhagen is strong.”
The attacks took place two days after Denmark and its partners in the European Union agreed to boost cooperation in the counter-terrorism field as a result of the January attacks in Paris, which claimed the lives of 17 victims, including four Jews killed in a kosher supermarket by an Islamist terrorist.
Officials said the Copenhagen unman was imitating the terror attacks in Paris.
"This is not a battle between Muslims and non-Muslims. It is a battle between ideas based on freedom of the individual and a dark ideology," said Thorning-Schmidt.
Around 30,000 people rallied in Copenhagen Monday evening to commemorate the shooting victims.