2 police, bystander, suspect wounded in Copenhagen gun melee

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Danish police on Thursday shot and critically wounded a 25-year-old man accused of shooting two officers and a bystander during a drug raid in a Copenhagen neighborhood known for its independent streak and thriving hashish trade.

Police said the suspect opened fire late Thursday when plainclothes officers tried to arrest him in Christiania, a drug-rife former squatter colony created in the 1970s when hippies occupied some abandoned navy barracks.

Police spokesman Joergen Skov said the man shot one officer in the head, a second in the thigh and a bystander in the leg before escaping. Their conditions were unclear.

Police tracked down the suspect several hours later 5 kilometers (3 miles) to the south in Kastrup near the airport and shot him early Thursday. He was hospitalized in critical condition.

Danish authorities aren't as forgiving as they once were toward Christiania's hashish trade, valued at an estimated at 1 billion kroner ($150 million) a year. But while police regularly conduct raids in the area, shootouts with suspects are rare.

"An incident like this gives reason for contemplation," Skov said. "Have things become so rough now that this is what we face when our colleagues do their job?"