Police find no explosives after alert at Copenhagen cafe

COPENHAGEN - Danish police said they found no explosives in a suspect package left outside a Copenhagen cafe on Tuesday, the scene of a fatal shooting three days earlier at an event promoting free speech.

Police with sniffer dogs rushed to the cafe after being alerted to the package, and television footage showed three officers taking photos of what looked like a large transparent envelope before picking it up and walking away.

There was no immediate information from police on what the package contained.

Copenhagen has been on high alert since Saturday, when a lone gunman sprayed the cafe with bullets, killing a participant at the event, and then fired shots at a synagogue, killing a guard.

Police shot and killed the suspected gunman on Sunday and arrested two people on Monday accused of helping him.

Police have declined to identify the shooter, but media outlets have named him as Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, a son of Palestinian immigrants known to the police due to weapons violations, an assault conviction and membership of a gang.

Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt called the weekend's events a terrorist attack and they have been compared to the violent rampage in Paris by Islamic militants in January that killed 17 including journalists at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper.

Sniffer dogs and about 25-30 police officers were present at the cafe on Tuesday, a Reuters TV reporter said, before cordons isolating the surrounding area were removed.