CAIRO, Feb 15 (Aswat Masriya) – The Egyptian Foreign Ministry condemned the deadly shootings that occurred in central Copenhagen claiming the lives of two citizens, sending the condolences of the Egyptian people to victims' families.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Badr Abdel Atty stressed on Sunday in a statement, obtained by Aswat Masriya, the need to respect religious symbols including Prophet Muhammad but added that there is no justification to the use of violence against others.     

The first shooting occured on Saturday afternoon and targeted a café called Krudttønden, which was hosting a discussion on freedom of expression at the time. The shooting left one person dead.

Among the attendees was French Ambassador to Denmark François Zimeray who said on Twitter "still alive in the room." He thanked the Danish police for saving his life.  

It was followed by another attack, hours later, on Sunday which targeted a synagogue leaving another person dead.

In total five police personnel have been injured in the two attacks.

The Danish police said in a statement on Sunday that they killed the suspect in both shootings. The likely perpetrator "fired several shots toward the [police's] Action Team, who then responded by shooting and killing" him, the statement read.

Swedish artist and cartoonist Lars Vilks was involved in the discussion in the café and was the target of the first attack, Al Jazeera cited Danish police as saying. He was unharmed in the shooting. Vilks has previously faced threats for cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.

Denmark's Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard said he was "shocked" by the shootings. He added in a post on Twitter that he was "touched by sympathy from all over the world."

The Copenhagen shootings come weeks after a series of deadly shootings in Paris which started with an attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on 7 January, which left a dozen people dead.