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, the head of Denmark's intelligence agency said Jan. 2.

Jakob Scharf said in a statement that a 28-year-old man with ties to al-Qaida attempted to enter Kurt Westergaard's home in Aarhus shortly after 10 p.m. on Jan. 1. But Westergaard pressed an alarm and police arrived minutes later, foiling the attempt on his life.

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," Scharf said.

Westergaard, whose 5-year-old granddaughter was in the home on a sleepover, sought shelter in a specially constructed safe room when the suspect broke a window of the home, said Preben Nielsen of the Aarhus police.

Police arrived two minutes later and tried to arrest the assailant, who threatened an officer with the ax. The officer then shot the man in the knee and hand, authorities said.

"According to PET information, the arrested man has close relations to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab and al-Qaida leaders in eastern Africa," Scharf said. The PET is Denmark's intelligence agency.

Westergaard remains a potential target for extremists nearly five years after he drew a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban. The drawing was printed along with 11 others in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in 2005.