Status: 14.10.2021 2:53 p.m.
After the attack in Kongsberg, Norway, with five dead, the police assume a terrorist background. The alleged perpetrator was previously in the focus of the authorities because of suspicion of Islamist radicalization.
After the act of violence with five dead and two injured in the Norwegian town of Kongsberg, the Norwegian police are now assuming a terrorist background. “The incidents in Kongsberg currently appear to be a terrorist act,” said a statement from the police security service.
Investigations into the exact background are still ongoing, it said. “The threat situation in Norway is still rated as moderate.”
A 37-year-old Dane shot at people with a bow and arrow in various locations in Kongsberg, including at or in a supermarket, and killed five of them: four women and one man. Two other people were seriously injured. You are in the intensive care unit, but your life is not in danger.
The man was known to the police as a potentially radicalized Muslim. A police officer said at a press conference that he was a “convert to Islam”. “There have been fears of radicalization before.” These fears have been followed up in the past year and before. This year, however, there were no more indications of abnormalities in the man.
Confession in the night
According to the police and the responsible public prosecutor, the man confessed to the crime that night. According to his lawyer, he is cooperating with the investigators. The prosecutor confirmed that he had been in contact with the Norwegian health system on several occasions. It was not clear from the statements whether he was being treated for mental health problems. The police assume that he acted alone.
The security service is now investigating whether what happened could inspire others to commit serious acts of violence. However, there are no concrete indications of this.
Sofie Donges, ARD Stockholm, with information about the alleged perpetrator
Tagesschau 12:00 p.m., 10/14/2021 12:07 p.m.
The conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg, who handed over her office to the Social Democrat Jonas Gahr Støre on schedule after a defeat in September, expressed her condolences to the survivors of the victims that night. “The news we got from Kongsberg tonight is terrible,” she said. “There have been several victims, the situation is dramatic. I understand that many people are afraid. So I want to emphasize that the police are in control of the situation.” Her successor Støre spoke of a “cruel and brutal act”.
King Harald also commented on this today, and the court published a written declaration. It says, among other things:
I am appalled by the tragic events in Kongsberg last night. We have compassion for the loved ones and the injured in their grief and despair. Norway is a small country. If the people of Kongsberg are hit this hard now, the rest of the nation will stand by you.
Norway has been the target of attacks on several occasions
The country had been the target of attacks several times in the past. The last time in August two years ago, a 22-year-old Norwegian right-wing extremist shot his Chinese-born stepsister and then attacked a mosque near the capital Oslo. He was sentenced to a maximum sentence of at least 21 years in prison.
As was Anders Breivik years earlier, who carried out the worst attack ever in Norway in 2011. In the explosion of a bomb he had planted in Oslo’s government district and a subsequent rampage in the summer camp of the social democratic youth organization on the nearby island of Utøya, he murdered 77 people.
With information from Carsten Schmiester, ARD-Studio Stockholm, currently Hamburg
Is the perpetrator radicalized? Five dead in attack in Norway
Carsten Schmiester, NDR, October 14, 2021 12:05 p.m.