COPENHAGEN, Denmark 

A gun attack in a Copenhagen shopping center in which three people were wounded is believed to have been the result of a confrontation between rival gangs, Danish police have said.

Three people were injured in the shootings on Wednesday in the Fields shopping center in the Danish capital - the biggest in Denmark - which earlier sparked fears of a "terrorist" attack, coming a month after Omar El-Hussein, 22, was shot dead by police after he attacked at a cultural center and a synagogue in the Danish capital, killing two people.

Danish police tweeted: "It looks like two gang-related groups have had an incident in the shopping mall."

"It culminated in the parking lot where shots were fired."

- 'Rival gangs'

Head of the Danish police department for organized crime, Lau Thygesen, told Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet: "We have information that the two groups have a history of disagreement."

Nine people were detained by police after the incident.

Several witnesses had noticed the two gangs in the shopping mall in the district of Amager before the shootings, which were reported to have involved eight people.

According to several students who were having their lunch at Fields, a group of masked men were parked in a silver-colored car at the front entrance to the mall.

- Gun attack

After the shootings, two young men, one of them reportedly armed, were seen running from the scene.

The incident comes a month after Danish-born former convict Omar El-Hussein killed two people and injured five police officers in the gun attack at a cultural center and a synagogue in the Danish capital.

Documentary filmmaker Finn Noergaard, 55, and Jewish security guard Dan Uzan, 37, were shot dead by the 22-year-old, who had previously been jailed for two years for committing grievous bodily harm.