Five men under custody for Danish terror plot

Police in Denmark and Sweden said they disillusioned a terrorist attack probably hours before it was to begin on Wednesday, arresting five men they say intended to shoot as many people as possible in a Copenhagen building housing the newsroom of a paper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Four suspects were arrested in the suburbs of Copenhagen, including a Tunisian, a man from Lebanon and an Iraqi asylum-seeker. A fifth suspect, a Swedish citizen of Tunisian origin, was arrested in Sweden.

The Danish intelligence service said it seized a submachine gun, a silencer and ammunition. "An impending terror assault has been frustrated," said Jakob Scharf, head of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, or PET. Scharf said three of the men were arrested as they left a suburban Copenhagen apartment, "either heading out to carry out the terror attack or to do some kind of reconnaissance."