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Gunmen attack event attended by cartoonist who depicted Mohammed

Posted at 12:27 PM, Feb 14, 2015
and last updated 2015-02-14 13:40:43-05

(CNN) — Three police officers were wounded in a shooting Saturday at an event in Denmark’s capital organized by supporters of Lars Vilks — the Swedish cartoonist whose portrayals of the Prophet Mohammed angered many in the Muslim world — Danish media reported.

Police confirmed that a shooting had taken place in the Osterbro section of Copenhagen, which is where the Lars Vilks Committee was meeting on Saturday.

The attackers fled the scene in a dark Volkswagen Polo, according to Copenhagen police.

It was not immediately clear whether any civilians or even Vilks himself suffered any injuries. One of those people who was at the event, French diplomat Francois Zimeray, tweeted that he is “still alive in the room.”

The attack occurred just over a month after the massacre at the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had come under fire for its publishing cartoons of Mohammed. Depictions of Mohammed are considered offensive by many Muslims.

Vilks was a target before Charlie Hebdo for his 2007 cartoon of Mohammed with the body of a dog — an animal that conservative Muslims consider unclean.

In a CNN interview later that year from his home in rural Sweden, Vilks said the drawing was a calculated move meant to elicit a rection.

“It should be possible to insult all religions in a democratic way,” he said then. “If you insult one (religion), then you should insult the other ones.”