Two Swedish Teenagers Detained After Explosions Near Israeli Embassy in Copenhagen

October 4, 2024 by No Comments

Two Swedish teenagers were taken into custody on Thursday in connection with two pre-dawn explosions near the Israeli Embassy in Copenhagen a day earlier. Authorities are investigating whether the motive behind the explosions could be terrorism.

While no injuries were reported from the blasts on Wednesday morning in a neighborhood with several foreign diplomatic missions, the nearby Jewish school was closed as a precautionary measure.

The suspects, who cannot be named due to a court order, were ordered detained for 27 days. They face charges of possessing illegal weapons and carrying five hand grenades. Two of the grenades detonated when the suspects threw them at a house near the embassy, according to prosecutor Søren Harbo.

“This was very close to the Israeli Embassy,” Harbo said before the court hearing on Thursday. The explosions caused damage to the roof terrace of a nearby house. The diplomatic mission itself was not harmed.

Thursday’s hearing was held behind closed doors after the preliminary charges were read. Danish broadcaster DR reported that the teenagers, aged 16 and 19, are suspected of acting “in association and together with prior agreement with one or more perpetrators.”

Both suspects denied the charges, according to local media reports.

The two suspects were apprehended on Wednesday shortly before noon on a train at Copenhagen’s central station. Danish media published photos of a man in a white hazmat suit being escorted away by police on a train platform at the station. A third suspect, aged 19, who had been arrested near the embassy, was released on Thursday, police said.

In Denmark, the charges are one step short of formal charges and allow authorities to keep criminal suspects in custody during an investigation.

Separately, shots were fired late Tuesday at the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm. No one was injured. No arrests have been made.

The Danish domestic security service, known by its acronym PET, said that “they have assessed that at least one specific act directed at the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, which was carried out by young criminals in Sweden, has links to Iran.”

In May, the Swedish domestic security agency announced that Iran was using established criminal networks in Sweden as a proxy to target Israeli or Jewish people. The announcement came after the in late January after what was then described as “a dangerous object” was found on the grounds of the diplomatic mission. Swedish media said the object was a hand grenade.

In a statement, PET said, “if we have a state actor who gets young criminals to carry out actions aimed at Jewish targets in our neighboring country, then we can be concerned that this will also happen in Denmark.”

In Stockholm, the operative of Sweden’s domestic security agency SAPO, Fredrik Hallström, said “the latest incident at the Israeli embassy is not classified as a terrorist crime at the moment.” His counterpart at the Swedish police’s National Operations Department, Johan Olsson, told the same press conference that the charges were of “aggravated weapons offenses, causing danger or other serious illegal threats and damage.”