2 Swedish teens face preliminary terror charges for explosions near the Israeli Embassy in Denmark

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Two Swedish teenagers who were arrested in connection with last month’s predawn explosions near the Israeli Embassy in Copenhagen faced preliminary charges of terror on Thursday, Danish media reported.

The charges come before formal charges and allow authorities to detain suspects during an investigation. The teens, aged 17 and 19, were arrested in early October after two hand grenades were thrown at the embassy. No one was injured and the explosions, about a 100 meters (yards) from the diplomatic mission, damaged the terrace of another building.

Danish broadcaster DR reported Thursday from a court session that the preliminary charges allege the pair intended to kill people in or around the Israeli Embassy.

Initially, the teens were arrested on preliminary charges of illegal possession of weapons and were held in pre-trial custody. However, police have said that preliminary charge could be expanded later.

Both have denied wrongdoing. The two, who have not been named, were detained at a train at Copenhagen’s central station.

The Ekstra Bladet newspaper later published photos purportedly of one of them, in a white hazmat suit — which police usually put on a suspect to preserve potential residue from an attack or DNA of possible victims — being taken away by police on a train platform.

In unrelated developments, Danish and Swedish authorities say they have noticed that organized criminal gangs hire Swedish teenagers to carry out crimes in Denmark, including deadly shootings.

The teens are contacted via social media because they do not face the same police controls as adults and are often shielded from prosecution. On Thursday, a Swedish court sentenced a 16-year-old Swede to one year in a juvenile facility for having planned to carry out a murder in Denmark.