Man arrested after minor explosion in downtown Copenhagen hotel

Man arrested after small blast in Copenhagen

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Police detained a man and sealed off central parts of the Danish capital Friday after a minor explosion in a Copenhagen hotel, a police spokesman said.

The man, of foreign origin, had slight injuries on his face and arms. He was arrested in a park near the site of the blast, spokesman Henrik Moeller Jacobsen said. The cause of the explosion was unclear.

“Whether it’s terror or a mad man’s work, we don’t know,” Moeller Jacobsen said. “We hope and believe that the person is the one who ran away from the hotel.”

Officers could not immediately confirm local media reports that the man was not a terrorist, but allegedly a criminal who had been under some kind of police surveillance.

Moeller Jacobsen described the explosion as small, occurring at 1139 GMT in a bathroom of Hotel Joergensen.

He said the man’s identity was being checked with authorities in his homeland but could not confirm that he was from Luxembourg or Belgium, as reported by the Danish Ekstra Bladet tabloid.

The man was transferred to Copenhagen’s university hospital for treatment and would be questioned later, Moeller Jacobsen said. He had no information on the man’s condition.

“It will take hours before we will have a full overview,” Moeller Jakobsen told reporters. He said no charges had been brought.

The man was staying at the low-cost hotel, about 100 yards (90 meters) from Copenhagen’s busiest commuter and regional train station. It is located on the ground floor and basement of a five-story building.

Police evacuated the hotel and were investigating objects found there after the blast.

“These are things that have been left,” Moeller Jacobsen said. “We don’t really know to whom they belong, whether they have been left on purpose or by accident and what’s in them.”

Police sealed off large parts of the Danish capital, causing traffic jams during the Friday afternoon rush-hour.

Moeller Jacobsen would not confirm media reports that the arrested man had tried to blow himself up.