OPEN warfare has broken out between heavily armed motorcycle gangs across Scandinavia, police said yesterday.
Bearded, leather jacketed bikers terrorised two of the region's airports on Sunday when they fought with automatic weapons. One man died in the exchanges of gunfire and four others were injured.
Some police officers believe drugs money may be behind the violence, adding that the motorcycle clubs are difficult for plainclothes police to penetrate because of the members' clannish loyalties.
The dead man, a member of the Bandidos motorcyclists' group, was believed to have been killed by rival Hell's Angels in an attack at Copenhagen airport. Three other bikers were wounded.
Almost simultaneously, gunfire erupted at Oslo airport, where a man was shot in the chest and seriously injured.
The shooting caused havoc at both airports where thousands of travellers were herded into protected areas.
Nordic police arrested about 40 people in Denmark and Norway overnight and warned there may be more violence.
Nordic bikers, associated with roughness, long hair and leather jackets, have become more violent since the Bandidos group established itself in the region two years ago. They are widely believed to be closely associated with drug smuggling.
Both groups, some of whose members are hard core bikers who practically live in the saddle, have headquarters close to each other, exacerbating the problem.
A Swedish police officer said that both Bandidos and Hell's Angels groups in the Nordic region were part of international gangs and received their orders from Oakland, California and Houston, Texas.
Both groups have around 100 members each in the region, with headquarters in the south of Sweden, Oslo and Helsinki.
Last summer, a leader of the Swedish Bandidos group was shot dead. The murder has not been solved. Several shoot outs have occurred since.
But police say it is difficult to infiltrate the biker groups, making it near impossible to stop their activities.
"We cannot get any of our people to do it because of the danger. Any policeman trying to do so would be found out immediately and killed", said Mr Herman Langlouis, chairman of the Danish chiefs of police association.
"It is money that is behind biker violence. They don't behave as they do just because they do not like the colour of each others' hair. It is drug trafficking which is behind the whole thing."
Danish police were still searching yesterday for the two gunmen thought to be responsible for Sunday's killing.