Danish Policeman Stabbed in Vicious Attack at Asylum Center

The police officer was taken to hospital after receiving multiple stab wounds in the attack at the Sandholm asylum center in the early hours of Tuesday.

 A Danish policeman was in a serious condition on Tuesday after he was stabbed at the Sandholm asylum reception center.

"I can say that at about 3:30am we get a report from the Sandholm center that a police officer has been stabbed with a knife," local police spokesman Henrik Suhr said on Tuesday.

After the attack, police from the Zealand and Copenhagen police forces cordoned off roads and employed sniffer dogs to search for the perpetrator. 

On Tuesday afternoon Zealand police announced they had arrested a 25-year-old Palestinian in connection with the attack, which they are investigating as an attempted homicide.

Police stabbed at Sandholm asylum centre http://t.co/QEP8AFt3gj

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The policeman is recovering in hospital after the attack, in which he received multiple stab wounds to the neck and stomach.

Around 600 people are currently staying at Sandholm, a former military barracks around 30 kilometers from Copenhagen which serves as Denmark's biggest asylum center. 

The facility receives asylum seekers who have recently arrived in Denmark, and also temporarily houses migrants who are set to leave the country after their asylum applications were rejected.

According to the Danish Migration Service, during the last three weeks Denmark has received around 100 asylum applications each day. Since the beginning of September around 18,000 refugees and migrants have entered Denmark, most of whom passed through to reach neighboring Sweden.