Man Arrested After Small Blast in Danish Hotel

Police detained a foreign man and sealed off central parts of the Danish capital Friday after a minor explosion in a downtown Copenhagen hotel, a police spokesman said.

The man had slight injuries on his face and arms, and was arrested in a park near the blast site, spokesman Henrik Moeller Jacobsen said. The cause of the explosion was still being investigated, and police were combing the area for evidence.

"Whether it's terror or a mad man's work, we don't know," Moeller Jacobsen said. "We hope and believe that the person is the one who ran away from the hotel."

He described the explosion as small, occurring at 1139 GMT Friday in a bathroom of the Hotel Joergensen.

Moeller Jacobsen said the man was a foreigner, saying his identity was currently being checked with authorities in his homeland, but could not confirm information by Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet that he was from Luxembourg or Belgium.

Television footage showed police surrounding a man lying on the ground in the park.

The low-cost hotel is about 100 yards (91 meters) from Copenhagen's busiest commuter and regional train station. It is located on the ground floor and basement of a five-story building.

Police evacuated the hotel and were investigating objects found there after the blast.

"These are things that have been left," Moeller Jacobsen said. "We don't really know to whom they belong, whether they have been left on purpose or by accident and what's in them."

Police sealed off large parts of Danish capital, causing traffic jams during the Friday afternoon rush-hour.

Moeller Jacobsen would not confirm several media reports that suggested the arrested man had tried to blow himself up.