One man is dead and three police officers have been wounded in Copenhagen after a coffee house was sprayed with full-auto gunfire during an event titled “‘Art, blasphemy and the freedom of expression” organized by the artist Lars Vilks

Below, the cafe under attack was hit by an estimated 200 bullets.

The cartoonist was part of the Danish cartoon controversy of Mohammed drawings published in the newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005. Any graphic expression Mohammed is considered blasphemy by hostile Muslims, and Vilks has been attacked before.

Below, cartoonist Lars Vilks with the axe he keeps under his bed for protection against the Religion of Peace. Apparently only jihadists can own firearms in Denmark.

Here’s an early report:

It’s reasonable to assume that Allah’s unfriendly gangsters are pumped up by their success in the mass assassination of the Charlie Hebdo staff in Paris early this year. Vilks is certainly high on their list of targets for practicing free speech according to Western principles.

Robert Spencer observed that the attack occurred on the anniversary of Iran declaring a fatwa on Salman Rushdie in 1989, another assault on free speech.

Any freedom-loving people should end Muslim immigration immediately if they want their societies to survive intact.

One person has died after 200 bullets were fired into a cafe in Copenhagen in an attack on a cartoonist who insulted the Prophet Mohammed.

A man, aged 40, was killed when two masked gunmen sprayed bullets into the Krudttoenden cafe in the centre of the Danish capital this afternoon.

It is believed the target was Lars Vilks, the controversial Swedish cartoonist who drew the Prophet Mohammed as a dog.

Three police officers were also injured in the attack on the cafe, which was hosting a debate on art and freedom of speech when it was targeted.

The attack is thought to have been carried out by two men, who remain on the run after fleeing the scene in a car.

There are reports on social media that the car has since been found, close to where the attack happened.

The cafe had been hosting a debate titled Art, Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression, featuring a number of controversial speakers.

Niels Ivar Larsen, who was speaking at the event, told how he forced to take shelter as the gunmen opened fire indiscriminately at the cafe.

He said: ‘I heard someone firing with an automatic weapons and someone shouting.

‘Police returned the fire and I hid behind the bar. I felt surreal, like in a movie.’

Vilks, a Swedish artist known for his provocative drawings of the Prophet Mohammed, has faced several attempted attacks and death threats after he depicted the Prophet as a dog in 2007.

As a result, he is guarded by police any time he visits Denmark. Some are speculating he was the intended target of the attack.

Sweden’s security police said Swedish bodyguards were with Vilks at the time of the shooting.

Authorities in southern Sweden said they were helping Danish police in the hunt for the gunmen. Sweden is joined to Denmark by bridge, and transit across is largely unchecked – sparking fears they may have followed Mr Vilks into the country in an assassination attempt.

Just over a month ago, 17 people were killed in France in three days of violence that began when two Islamist gunmen burst into the Paris offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, opening fire in revenge for its publication of satirical images of Mohammed.

However, Helle Merete Brix, one of the organisers of the event, said Mr Vilks, 68, had not been injured.

‘I clearly consider this as an attack on Lars Vilks,’ she added, saying she was ushered away with Mr Vilks by one of the Danish police guards.

‘The security guards shouted ‘everyone get out’ and we were being pushed out of the room.

‘They tried to shoot their way into the conference room. I saw one of them running by, wearing a mask.

‘There was no way to tell his face. I’m not even sure if there was one or two.’

Mr Vilks is an outspoken supporter for the need for freedom of speech.

In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo masscare, Mr Vilks complained even fewer organizations were inviting him to give lectures over increased security concerns.

Vilks also said he thought Sweden’s SAPO security service, which deploys bodyguards to protect him, would step up the security around him.

‘This will create fear among people on a whole different level than we’re used to,’ he said.

‘Charlie Hebdo was a small oasis. Not many dared do what they did.’

Comparisons between the two events are already starting to be made – including by the French ambassador Francois Zimeray, who was present at the meeting.

He said: ‘They fired on us from the outside. It was the same intention as (the January 7 attack on) Charlie Hebdo except they didn’t manage to get in.

‘Intuitively I would say there were at least 50 gunshots, and the police here are saying 200.

‘Bullets went through the doors and everyone threw themselves to the floor. We managed to flee the room, and now we’re staying inside because it’s still dangerous.

‘The attackers haven’t been caught and they could very well still be in the neighbourhood.’

According to the cafe’s Facebook event, they were debating the a number of points around freedom of expression, including where the limit is and do people have a right to blasphemous.

French campaigner Inna Shevchenko, leader of Ukrainian feminist group FEMEN, was one of the speakers.

Ms Shevchenko, who is known for her nude protests, which have taken place in both churches and mosques, tweeted her own account of the attack after she had escaped.

‘I ran away with some people through the back door, didn’t see anything. I heard about 20 shots at the entrance of the building,’ she tweeted.

‘With me there was Lars Vilks, French ambassador and dozens of people from the audience.

‘I am not sure what was that, I don’t know what we heard but everybody was running.’

London-based Agnieszka Kolek was the third speaker at the event. She organises the Passion for Freedom Art Festival each year.

It was a Danish paper which first found itself in serious trouble for printing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005, causing several attacks on Danish embassies in the Middle East.

French president Francois Hollande said in a statement several people may have been wounded and that Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve would go to Copenhagen as soon as possible.

In a statement, President Hollande called the shooting ‘deplorable’ and said Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt would have the ‘full solidarity of France in this trial.’

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius condemned what he called a ‘terrorist attack’ in a separate statement.

ARTIST WHO SLEEPS WITH AN AXE UNDER HIS BED: LARS VILKS (sidebar)

Lars Vilks – the Swedish artist believed to be the target of the attack – sleeps with an axe under his bed and has had a panic room installed in his house as he lives under constant threat from Islamist fanatics.

He has been a target since 2007 when his controversial cartoon depicted the prophet Mohammed as a stray dog resulted in death threats.

Mr Vilks has received numerous death threats and has lived under the constant protection of the Swedish police since 2010.

In an interview with Associated Press in 2010, Mr Vilks defended his work and insisted he was not deliberately trying to offend Islam.

He said: ‘As an artist, you have to take a stand for things. If you do something, you have to take full responsibility for it.

‘I’m actually not interested in offending the prophet. The point is actually to show that you can. There is nothing so holy you can’t offend it.

Two years ago, an American woman who called herself Jihad Jane was sentenced to 10 years in prison for plotting to kill him.

Mr Vilks was also assaulted at a Swedish university in 2010, after showing an Iranian film that depicted the prophet entering a gay bar.

The same year, two brothers tried to burn down the cartoonist’s house in southern Sweden and were later imprisoned for attempted arson.