Attack in Kongsberg: Norway mourns the victims

Status: 10/17/2021 1:19 p.m.

Norway held a church service to commemorate the victims of the attack in Kongsberg. The crown prince couple also took part. The police are, however, more and more criticized – the perpetrator was arrested too late.

By Sofie Donges, ARD-Studio Stockholm

The service began with a longer piece of music. Many residents from Kongsberg have come, all of the benches are occupied. The Norwegian Crown Prince couple Haakon and Mette also took part in the funeral service.

Pastor Roar Tønnessen reminded the victims and their relatives: “Grief is the necessary pain that we feel when we lose our loved ones. Without pain, grief will not end. Unfortunately, this is the difficult path many of you face in the next few days and maybe years. “

Memorial service for the victims of the archer attack in Kongsberg, Norway

daily news 12:00 p.m., 10/17/2021

“Our street will never be the same again”

The alleged perpetrator, a 37-year-old Dane, killed five people. He is said to have attacked them with a bow and arrow and other weapons and entered their houses and apartments. Among the victims is a German, born in Hanover, who has lived in Norway for years.

Her neighbor Thomas Nielsen spoke to her a few hours before the crime: “It’s incomprehensible. As a person, she was just a butterfly. She always had a smile on her face. She was just a warm and loving person. In her beautiful house she also had a little shop. She was someone everyone wanted to know. A great loss for all of us, our street will never be the same again. “

Police are under fire

After the crime on Wednesday evening, the investigators quickly determined that there was a suspicion of terrorism: the alleged perpetrator had converted to Islam and there had been several indications of radicalization. After the first interrogations, the investigators now believe that the act of violence was not an Islamist attack, but that the perpetrator was mentally ill, a police spokesman said at a press conference on Saturday:

It was known that he said he had converted to Islam. That is one of our hypotheses. Another hypothesis is that he did not convert. So far, the investigation suggests that he did not take religion very seriously, that he did not embrace the religion’s culture and traditions.

The 37-year-old is on remand in a closed medical facility. The police are under criticism: not only because they apparently prematurely assumed a terrorist act, but also because the perpetrator attacked people in Kongsberg for half an hour until the police arrested him.

Funeral service in Kongsberg for the victims, the archer attack and criticism of the investigators

Sofie Donges, ARD Stockholm, October 17, 2021 12:22 p.m.

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