A Danish citizen, a permanent resident of Kongsberg, is the perpetrator of the deadliest attack in Norway since the 2011 massacre.
The perpetrator of the bow and arrow attacks on Wednesday in Kongsberg, in southwestern Norway, which resulted in the death of five people and the injury of two others, is a Dane, 37 years old, a permanent resident of the city, the police announced today.
The police decided to publish this information “Because of the rumors on social networking sites for people not connected” by attacking the small town of about 28,000 inhabitants , which is 68 km from the capital, Oslo. However, no other details of the man’s identity were made public.
Nothing has been announced about the perpetrator’s motives at this stage. The attack is the deadliest in Norway since July 2011, when far-right Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people in two attacks in Oslo and the small island of Uteja. Most of his victims were children in adolescence.
Authorities do not rule out the possibility that yesterday’s attack was a terrorist act. They are expected to release more information later in the day. The perpetrator of the case, who is still being questioned, “cooperates, gives a detailed testimony ,” lawyer Fredrik Neumann told the public television network NRK.
The two injured were taken to hospital and admitted to intensive care units (ICU), however, according to Kongsberg Police Chief Evid Os, their lives are not in danger. One is an off-duty police officer in a supermarket, one of several locations where the man was attacked with a bow.
“Quiver on the shoulder”
According to police, the man is being held at the police station in the neighboring town of Dramen. No other suspect is wanted.
The police, who were notified at 18:13 (local time; at 19:13 Greek time), arrested the suspect at 18:47 (19:47). Access to the sites where the attacks took place was blocked by the special tape placed by forensic doctors at the crime scenes and police officers were present, a correspondent of the French Agency found.
A resident, Hansin, who saw the attack in part, told Norwegian television network TV2 that she heard a pandemonium and saw a woman trying to cover herself and “a man on the street corner with arrows in a quiver on his shoulder and a bow in hand”.
“Then I saw people running to save their lives . “Among them was a woman holding a child in her hand,” he told the television network.
“These events shock us,” said Erna Solberg, Norway’s prime minister, on the last day of her term. Today, it relinquishes its position to Labor leader Jonas Gar Stere, the winner of the September 13 parliamentary elections .
Armed police officers
Residents were advised by local authorities to stay in their homes, while strong police forces and several ambulances were deployed in the area.
Police helicopters and helicopter gunships for the injured , as well as a team of pyrotechnics, were also sent to the scene.
The Norwegian Police Directorate-General has ordered its members – police officers who generally do not carry weapons in Norway – to temporarily carry weapons throughout the country.
Norwegian media broadcast snapshots depicting black arrows, apparently racing, thrown down and nailed deep into a wooden wall panel.
In the past, Norway, a traditionally peaceful country, has been bloodily attacked by far-right supporters . Various jihadist attacks have also been foiled by Norwegian police.
