France's ambassador to Denmark Francois Zimeray, who was attending the debate, was not hurt in the shooting which the French authorities called "a terrorist attack".
Danish police said they were hunting for two suspected assailants who fled the scene in a Volkswagen Polo. Security officials were seeking to track down the car through its licence number, they added.
Zimeray told AFP the attackers were seeking to replicate the January 7 assault by jihadists in Paris on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo that left 12 dead.
"They shot from the outside (and) had the same intention as Charlie Hebdo, only they didn't manage to get in," Zimeray said by telephone from the venue.
READ ALSO: Denmark investigating shooting as 'terror act'
"Intuitively I would say there were at least 50 gunshots, and the police here are saying 200," he told AFP.
"Bullets went through the doors and everyone threw themselves to the floor. We managed to flee the room, and now we're staying inside because it's still dangerous. The attackers haven't been caught and they could very well still be in the neighbourhood."
Zimeray said earlier on Twitter that he was not harmed. Reports said that Swedish artist Lars Vilks, the author of controversial Prophet Muhammad cartoons published in 2007 that sparked worldwide protests, was also at the debate.
An armed security officer runs down a street near a venue after shots were fired. (AP photo)
Charlie Hebdo raised the ire of Islamist extremists by republishing those and other caricatures, and later satirizing Islam in later editions.
A Femen activist, Inna Shevshenko, said on Twitter that there were several dozen people in the room.
READ ALSO: Assailants 'escaped by car' after attack
French foreign minister Laurent Fabius condemned what he called a "terrorist attack targeting a public meeting", saying in a statement that France "remains by the side of the Danish authorities and people in the fight against terrorism."
Vilks has been under police protection since his 2007 cartoons were published.
The French president's office said interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve was headed to the scene.
The free-speech debate was organized by Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who has faced numerous threats for caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad. (AP file photo)
Read this story in Hindi: फ्री स्पीच के समर्थन सभा में गोलीबारी, एक की मौत, तीन घायल
http://ift.tt/1t7kA0R Muhammad cartoons,Lars Vilks,Europe Islamist Attacks,Denmark Islam Debate Shooting,Copenhagen Shooting Casualties
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