On 6 October 1996, a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at the headquarters of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Copenhagen, Denmark, killing two people and injuring nineteen others. A prospective member of the rival Bandidos Motorcycle Club was convicted of perpetrating the attack, which occurred during the Nordic Biker War (1994–97).
Background
A conflict between the Bandidos and Hells Angels, known as the Nordic Biker War, commenced in January 1994. After its beginning in southern Sweden, violence involving the rival clubs also took place in Norway and Finland, before eventually reaching Denmark on 26 December 1995, when two Hells Angels members were severely beaten by a group of Bandidos at a restaurant in Copenhagen. The Hells Angels retaliated by ambushing and shooting Bandidos members at Copenhagen Airport on 10 March 1996, killing Bandidos "Southside" chapter president Uffe Lindenskov Larsen and sparking the most violent phase of the biker war. On 17 April 1996, the clubhouse of the Hells Angels' "South" chapter in Snoldelev was hit with an anti-tank missile. Fourteen bikers inside were able to avoid serious injury. Four hours later, a second missile hit the clubhouse of the Hells Angels-affiliated Avengers Motorcycle Club in Aalborg. Four gang members sleeping in the building were unhurt by the missile, which did not detonate. A series of tit-for-tat shootings, grenade attacks and car bombings were carried out in the following months.
The fortified compound used as a clubhouse by the Copenhagen Hells Angels chapter, located at Titangade 2–4 in the Ydre Nørrebro area of the city, was first targeted on 21 July 1996, when a six kilogram remote-controlled bomb hidden in a sports bag was placed in front of the clubhouse. The bomb failed to explode when the radio-controlled trigger malfunctioned, potentially saving the lives of four Hells Angels members in the building as well as residents of the street. The device was later detonated by police. The fingerprints of Jacob "Hip Hop" Andersen, a member of the Bandidos chapter in Dalby, were found on the sports bag by police technicians. He was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison in 1997. Under pressure from local residents, mayor of Copenhagen Jens Kramer Mikkelsen ordered the Hells Angels to leave their headquarters, which they rented from the city under a law providing low-cost leases to clubs and civic organisations, in September 1996. The Hells Angels refused, however.
Attack
At the height of the biker war, the Copenhagen Hells Angels made the contentious decision to host their annual "Viking Party" at their clubhouse on Titangade in Nørrebro on 5 October 1996. The party was attended by approximately one-hundred-and-fifty people, including Hells Angels from Denmark and Sweden, as well as local residents who were invited by the club via posters in an apparent attempt to mollify members of the public who were outraged by the spiraling motorcycle gang violence. In expectance of another attack, police officers patrolled the perimeter, and parking near the clubhouse walls was prohibited.
At approximately 3:05 am on 6 October 1996, a shoulder-fired rocket was fired at the clubhouse from the sloping roof of a building between seventy and 330 yards behind the compound. The missile exploded after penetrating the building's concrete walls, killing two people – thirty-nine-year old prospective Hells Angels member Louis Linde Nielsen and Janne Krohn, a twenty-nine-year-old single mother from the local area with no links to the club – and wounding nineteen others, including Hells Angels Denmark national president Christian Middelboe. All of the wounded were Danish, except for one Norwegian. Around half of the party's attendees were congregated around a bar at the time of the explosion. The injuries were caused by shrapnel or by the extreme heat generated by the grenade. The Carl Gustaf M3 84 mm recoilless multi-purpose rifle used in the attack was one of twelve stolen from a Swedish Army weapons depot in Malmö during a burglary on 19 February 1994. A second, unfired, grenade was also found on the rooftop. Other sources have reported that the weapon used was an AT4.