Norway’s domestic intelligence service PST, which is responsible for counter-terrorism, said Saturday that it was treating a deadly overnight shooting near a gay bar in Oslo, which left two people dead and 21 injured, as “an act of Islamist terrorism”.
The suspect, a 42-year-old Norwegian man of Iranian descent, who was arrested “has a long history of violence and threats” and has been on the PST’s radar “since 2015 in connection with concerns about his radicalisation” and membership “in an Islamist extremist network,” PST’s chief Roger Berg told a press conference.
Oslo’s Pride march was called off earlier in the day after the attack right at the heart of the normally tranquil Norwegian capital.
“All events linked to Oslo Pride have been cancelled” following “clear” recommendations by police, the organisers wrote on Facebook. “We do not yet know the reasons for this terrible act, but to all the homosexuals who now are afraid and are in mourning, I say we are all with you,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said on Facebook.
Police received the first reports at 1.14 am and the suspect was arrested five minutes later, police said. They added that they were able to quickly apprehend the suspect thanks to the “heroic contribution” of bystanders.
The shootings happened near the London Pub gay club, the Herr Nilsen jazz club and a takeaway food outlet. On Saturday, rainbow flags hung near the scene. Police presence was stepped up throughout the capital.
‘BLEEDING MAN ON THE GROUND’
“He looked very determined about where he was aiming. When I realised it was serious, I ran. There was a bleeding man lying on the ground,” a woman who saw the incident told the Verdens Gang newspaper. “There were a lot of injured people on the ground who had head injuries,” another witness was quoted by the paper as saying.
According to an NRK radio journalist present at the time of the shooting, the shooter arrived with a bag from which he pulled out a weapon and started firing. Police said the suspect had several minor run-ins with the law, for knife and drug possession.
Norway’s King Harald V said in a statement that he was “horrified”. “We have to gather together to defend our values – liberty, diversity and mutual respect.”
Generally peaceful Norway was the scene of bloody attacks on July 22, 2011, when right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people. He first detonated a bomb near the government headquarters in Oslo, killing eight people. He then disguised himself as a policeman and went on a shooting spree at a summer camp for left-wing youth on the island of Utoya, killing another 69 people – most of them teenagers.
(Written by Pierre-Henry Deshayes)
