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Stone throwing causes temporary closure on Danish motorway

Police were forced to temporarily close a motorway near Copenhagen on Thursday due to reports that rocks were being thrown at cars.

Stone throwing causes temporary closure on Danish motorway
File photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

The Hillerød Motorway was closed at the exit for Farum as North Zealand police investigated possible rock throwing at traffic.

The motorway is now open again after a closure lasting around 30 minutes, the Danish Road Directorate (Vejdirektoratet) confirmed on Twitter.

A car was earlier on Thursday hit on the windscreen by a stone, resulting in the police response.

It is unclear whether the stone was thrown or whether there it hit the car by other means. However, two persons were reported to have been standing on a nearby motorway bridge and making throwing gestures at the time of the incident.

Nobody was injured in the incident. The windscreen of was smashed, however.

“The windscreen of a car was hit in connection with suspected stone throwing, but there are no immediate reports of injuries,” police tweeted.

In a later tweet, North Zealand police stated that investigation had not resulted in “findings or information that could confirm rock throwing. There was not a dangerous situation in relation to the car being hit and we cannot dismiss the possibility of debris”.

Incidents involving rock or stone throwing on motorways occur with relative regularity in Denmark. In 2016, such an incident resulted in a fatality when a German car was hit by part of a paving stone near Odense. The car’s passenger, a woman, was killed. Her husband and their child survived.

Meanwhile, police in Sweden have recently called for motorists to assist by reporting incidents of stone throwing at Danish cars on a road used by vehicles heading to the ferry terminal to Danish island Bornholm, which is located in the Baltic Sea near Sweden.

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CRIME

Nordic justice ministers meet tech giants on gangs hiring ‘child soldiers’

The justice ministers of Denmark, Sweden and Norway are to meet representatives of the tech giants Google, Meta, Snapchat and TikTok, to discuss how to stop their platforms being used by gang criminals in the region.

Nordic justice ministers meet tech giants on gangs hiring 'child soldiers'

Denmark’s justice minister, Peter Hummelgaard, said in a press release that he hoped to use the meeting on Friday afternoon to discuss how to stop social media and messaging apps being used by gang criminals, who Danish police revealed earlier this year were using them to recruit so-called “child soldiers” to carry out gang killings.  

“We have seen many examples of how the gangs are using social media and encrypted messaging services to plan serious crimes and recruit very young people to do their dirty work,” Hummelgaard said. “My Nordic colleagues and I agree that a common front is needed to get a grip on this problem.”

As well as recruitment, lists have been found spreading on social media detailing the payments on offer for various criminal services.   

Hummelgaard said he would “insist that the tech giants live up to their responsibilities so that their platforms do not act as hotbeds for serious crimes” at the meeting, which will take place at a summit of Nordic justice ministers in Uppsala, Sweden.

In August, Hummelgaard held a meeting in Copenhagen with Sweden’s justice minister, Gunnar Strömmer, at which the two agreed to work harder to tackle cross-border organised crime, which has seen a series of Swedish youth arrested in Denmark after being recruited to carry out hits in the country. 

According to a press release from the Swedish justice ministry, the morning will be spent discussing how to combat the criminal economy and particularly organised crime in ports, with a press release from Finland’s justice ministry adding that the discussion would also touch on the “undue influence on judicial authorities” from organised crime groups. 

The day will end with a round table discussion with Ronald S Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, on how anti-Semitism and hate crimes against Jews can be prevented and fought in the Nordic region. 

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