Agnieszka Kolek was there today, and she tells us about it in the Spectator.
I was invited to Lars Vilks committee in Copenhagen to present Passion for Freedom London Art Festival. The committee is organized annually and happens on the anniversary of Salman Rushdie’s fatwa. The meeting started with a short introduction from one of the organizers followed by François Zimeray, the French ambassador, commemorating Charlie Hebdo and discussing the challenges that we face when it comes to the threats to freedom of speech and democracy in our countries.
Not knowing they were about to get a graphic demonstration of those threats.
Inna Shevchenko opened the panel and started to talk about Femen and her work. She also discussed her close friendship with Charb, the editor of Charlie Hebdo, and how they both stood strong exercising their right to freedom of expression. A few minutes into her speech we heard separate bangs. It sounded like crackers. Everyone was sitting and Inna was speaking as the bangs turned into a shower of bullets. It sounded like a machine gun. There was lots of shouting in Danish, the security shouted that Lars should evacuate, everyone started to run or hide. A few people remained sitting. I slid behind the stage to hide.
Then the shooting stopped, and after awhile people started to get back together and talk, and then they decided to continue with the presentation.