The Danish Police and Intelligence Service (PET) announced that they had arrested several people on Thursday to counter a planned attack.
“PET and several police districts made arrests in various locations in Denmark this morning as part of a coordinated operation,” it said in a statement.
“The operation was carried out on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack,” intelligence services and police added.
Authorities have not released details but are expected to hold a news conference about the operation this afternoon.
For the Prime Minister, this dragnet shows “the situation we find ourselves in in Denmark”.
It has been “several years since we could see that there are people who live in Denmark and who do not wish us well, who are against our democracy, our freedom and Danish society,” Mette Frederiksen explained to the press.
Intelligence agencies classify the terrorist threat as “critical” and rate it at level four out of five.
Denmark and neighboring Sweden have sparked anger in Muslim countries recently after several Koran desecrations on their soil. In Iraq, for example, hundreds of supporters of the influential religious leader Moqtada Sadr attempted to march towards the Danish embassy in Baghdad in late July.
Denmark has since passed a law banning the burning of Islam's holy book, saying it is to protect national security.