A suspected drug smuggler was killed last night after an exchange of fire with police who were waiting to apprehend them in a small northern Jutland harbour.
The police had received a tip-off that the three smugglers were going to use the harbour and, as the men arrived at around 9pm, moved in to arrest them.
The men attempted to flee, however, and fired upon the police. One policeman – a specially-trained member of the domestic intelligence agency PET – was hit in the groin, and in the returning fire, one of the suspected smugglers, a 49-year-old, was shot in the head and died.
Another suspected smuggler, a 36-year-old, was hit in the chest but is now out of danger, while the third man, a 27-year-old, was arrested.
Some 250 kilograms of cannabis was found in the men’s boat that had arrived in the harbour from Norway. All three men are thought to be Norwegians, though police have yet to formally identify them.
The men had chosen a small harbour on the northeastern coast of Jutland, Albæk, which is located about 20 kilometres south of Denmark’s most northerly town, Skagen, a popular tourist destination.
