'Radicalized' Convert to Islam Held in Bow-and-Arrow Attack That Killed 5
A man who was reportedly a radicalized convert to Islam killed five victims and wounded others in a bow-and-arrow attack Wednesday near the Norwegian capital of Oslo before he was arrested, authorities said.
A police spokesman in the town of Kongsberg said there was “a confrontation” between officers and the assailant, but he did not elaborate.
“The man who carried out the act has been arrested by the police, and there is no active search for more people. Based on the information we have, there is one person behind this,” police spokesman Oeyvind Aas said.
BREAKING: Several people have been killed and others injured by a man armed with a bow and arrow near Oslo, Norwegian police say. The suspected attacker has been arrested. https://t.co/dxFQAm49pI
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 13, 2021
Police were alerted to the attack about 6:10 p.m., authorities said. They initially made contact, but the suspect escaped.
Most of the victims were killed after that initial contact.
“From what we know now, it is reasonably clear that some, probably everyone, was killed after the police were in contact with the perpetrator,” police Chief Ole B. Saeverud said at a news conference.
The victims were four women and a man between the ages of 50 and 70, Saeverud said.
The community is about 40 miles southwest of Oslo.
The suspect was described as a 37-year-old Danish man. According to Norwegian media reports, he has a criminal history of burglary and drug possession.
A local court reportedly issued a restraining order preventing him from contacting his parents after he threatened to kill one of them last year.
According to police, the killer walked around the city shooting victims with arrows.
Several people were wounded in shops, Aas said.
The man had not been questioned yet Wednesday, and his motive was unknown, Aas said.
“There earlier had been worries of the man having been radicalized,” Saeverud told the news conference, noting there were “complicated assessments related to the motive, and it will take time before this is clarified.”
Saeverud also said the man was known to be a concern to authorities.
“The police have previously been in contact with the man, including as a result of previous concerns related to radicalization,” he said, according to CNN.
Newly appointed Prime Minister-Jonas Gahr Stoere called the attack “horrific.”
“This is unreal. But the reality is that five people have been killed, many are injured and many are in shock,” Gahr Stoere told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
In a statement to the mayor of Kongsberg, Norwegian King Harald V said people have “experienced that their safe local environment suddenly became a dangerous place. It shakes us all when horrible things happen near us, when you least expect it, in the middle of everyday life on the open street.”
City officials invited those affected by the attack and their relatives to gather for support at a local hotel.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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