Injured in attack

Danish Prime Minister has whiplash injury

The Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen

(Bild: AFP)

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has been examined in hospital following the attack in Copenhagen on Friday evening. "The blow caused a slight whiplash injury," her office announced.

She is otherwise in good condition, but has been shaken by the incident. Frederiksen's participation in several events has been canceled.

The 46-year-old was physically assaulted by a man in downtown Copenhagen on Friday. The police arrested a 39-year-old man. The background to the attack was initially unclear. Neither the police nor the Prime Minister's office have yet commented on the attacker's intentions - or whether he was armed.

Attacks are rare in Austria
Attacks on politicians have increased in recent years. In Germany alone, the police have recorded over 2,700 attacks on elected officials. During the election campaign for the EU Parliament, there were several attacks on politicians from different parties. Well-known examples in the recent past include the assassination attempt on Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker in October 2015 and the murder of CDU politician Walter Lübcke five years ago.

In Slovakia, head of government Robert Fico's life was briefly in danger after a knife attack in May. Fortunately, physical attacks on politicians are rare in Austria. The best-known incidents were the poisoned chocolate for the mayor of Spitz, Hannes Hirtzberger, in 2008, who has been in a vegetative state ever since, the series of letter bombs by Franz Fuchs in the 1990s, in which the then mayor of Vienna, Helmut Zilk, was seriously injured, and the murder of Vienna city councillor Heinz Nittel by Islamist terrorists in 1981.