Copenhagen ? A Somali man wielding an ax and a knife was shot by police as he attempted to kill an artist who drew a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad that sparked outrage in the Muslim world, Denmark’s head of intelligence said today.

A 28-year-old man with ties to al-Qaida attempted to enter Kurt Westergaard’s home in Aarhus on Friday night, the PET intelligence service said. But Westergaard pressed an alarm and police arrived minutes later.

The attack on the artist, whose rendering was among 12 that led to the torching of Danish diplomatic offices in predominantly Muslim countries in 2006, was “terror related,” the intelligence service said.