The Swedish cartoonist who survived Saturday’s shooting at a free-speech event in Copenhagen has gone in to hiding, according to authorities. Lars Vilks is believed to have been the target of the attack thanks to his 2007 cartoon featuring Mohammed as a dog.
A spokeswoman for Swedish police said Vilks, who has survived past assassination attempts, couldn’t stay at his home in Sweden because it’s ”not a safe place,” according to Agence France-Presse.
“It’s been a tragic event but I am not affected personally by it,” Vilks told Radio Sweden. “It’s become routine.”
On Saturday, Vilks escaped through the performance hall’s kitchen after gunman Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, a Danish-born 22-year-old of Palestinian descent, opened fired. Danish filmmaker Finn Nørgaard was killed in the attack, before the shooter went on to a nearby synagogue and killed a Jewish man. Danish police have arrested two people suspected of aiding Hussein.