At least three shootings – two in Copenhagen and one in Kolding – have been linked with Swedish teenagers in the last two weeks. Police have arrested two 17-year-olds and one 16-year-old, all Swedish nationals, in connection with the shootings.

“Danes should know that we have a government, a [justice] minister and a police force in Denmark that is taking this very, very seriously,” Hummelgaard said to the Ritzau newswire.

“It’s a reflection of a sick and very rotten culture that we are in any way in a place where gang circles in Sweden have built up a business in which teenagers can be hired in Sweden to do crimes, and that is now something that is being attempted in Denmark,” he said.

READ ALSO: Denmark detains Swedish teenager in latest shooting incident

A senior Danish police officer last week said there have been cases of Swedish teenagers receiving payments of 200,000 kroner or more from Danish criminal groups to commit serious crimes in Denmark.

“We have seen that criminals are looking on social media for people willing to commit serious crimes and that young Swedes unfortunately are agreeing to do so for payment,” senior police investigator Torben Svarrer, from the Danish police’s NSK unit for serious crimes, told Sweden’s TT newswire.

“They are simply getting a large amount of money to carry out violent crime including murder. What we are seeing now is attempted murders. But in Sweden there have been murders and some of the same channels have been used,” he also told Danish broadcaster DR.

READ ALSO: Danish police chief says young Swedes ‘paid for serious crime’ in Denmark

Hummelgaard said that police in Denmark were very aware of the problem and were working closely with Swedish colleagues.

“Danish police have also been ahead of this several times and have been able to intervene and arrest several people before anything happened,” he said.

“I see this as incomprehensible cynicism and an extremely violent tendency in Swedish gang circles, which we do not want to spread to Denmark under any circumstances,” he said.

The minister also said he would be meeting with the head of the National Police (Rigspolitiet) and NSK this week to discuss potential political responses to the problem.

Last week, two Swedish nationals aged 17 and 16 years were placed in pre-trial detention after carrying out shootings in Kolding and Copenhagen respectively.

According to Danish police, the two youths were recruited on social media to commit crimes in Denmark. In the Kolding shooting a man was shot at least three times in the leg, and in the Copenhagen shooting, at the Blågårds Plads square in Nørrebro, no one was injured.

On Tuesday, a 17-year-old Swede was technically remanded in custody by a court in Copenhagen district Frederiksberg following a shooting incident in the area. 

Police believe the boy to be behind an incident in which six shots were fired from a semiautomatic weapon at an 18-year-old man in a jewellery store. The weapon was subsequently discovered by police in a hiding place at a local swimming baths.

Suspects under the age of 18 cannot be put into arrest but are detained in the care of authorities.