Danish police shoot man trying to break into cartoonist's home
Danish police shot and wounded an axe-wielding man linked to radical Somali Islamists who tried to break into the home of cartoonist Kurt Westergaard whose depictions of Islam's prophet Mohammed infuriated Muslims.
Police foiled an attempt to kill an artist who drew cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that sparked outrage in the Muslim world, the head of Denmark's intelligence service said Saturday.
Jakob Scharf, who heads the PET intelligence service, said a 28-year-old Somalia national man was armed with an axe and a knife when he attempted to enter Kurt Westergaard's home in Aarhus shortly after 10 p.m. (2100 GMT) on Friday.
The Somali national was armed and had terrorist intent, the internal security service said in a statement.
Kurt Westergaard, who has received several death threats since a Danish newspaper four years ago published his drawing featuring Mohammed wearing a turban in the shape of a bomb, was at home in Viby near the western city of Aarhus guarded by police when the intruder tried to get in.
"I locked myself in our safe room. He tried to smash the entrance door with an axe," Westergaard, 74, who was in the house with a five-year-old grandson, told Danish news agency Ritzau.
The security alarm was set off when the man tried to enter the house before being shot by the guards, the daily Politiken reported online. The intruder, wounded in the arm and leg, was hospitalised.
PET said in its statement: "The attempted murder of cartoonist Kurt Westergaard is linked to terrorism. The person arrested ... has close links with the Somali terrorist organisation Al-Shebab as well as with the heads of Al-Qaeda in east Africa.
