Apparently a German was also killed in the act of violence in Kongsberg, Norway. This was confirmed by the Foreign Office of the SZ. Initially had that T-online portal and several Norwegian media reported about it. It is a 52-year-old from northern Germany. A total of five people died.
Investigators in Norway seem to have increasing doubts about an act motivated by terrorism. There are indications that the suspect has not actually converted to Islam, said police inspector Thomas Omholt at a press conference. Instead, the suspicion of a mental illness was confirmed.
A 37-year-old Dane has admitted that he killed five people in downtown Kongsberg on Wednesday evening. The man shot numerous people with a bow and arrow, among other things.
As it turned out, the man had been the focus of authorities for years. In 2017 he published a video in which he described himself as a Muslim and a messenger and announced an action. The investigations have now shown that the man did not take his alleged conversion to Islam seriously, said Omholt.
The investigators assume that the man acted alone. There is no indication that he has been in contact with other people, Omholt continued. The alleged perpetrator’s lawyer told Norwegian broadcaster TV2 that he agreed with the police’s preliminary findings.
According to the police, the Dane was in constant contact with the health service over the course of several years. Omholt did not want to comment on details about the mental health of the man in order not to influence testimony, as he emphasized. Nonetheless, the case raises the question of why the man was not targeted more closely by the authorities. A spokesman for the PST police security service said the video was not viewed as a serious threat because the content was unspecific.
But the PST had already received indications in 2015 that the man could be dangerous. Arne Christian Haugstøyl, head of counter-terrorism at PST, told the newspaper Verdens gangthat it was considered unlikely that he would commit a politically motivated act of violence.
A court ordered the Dane to be detained for four weeks on Friday. He has to spend the first two weeks in isolation. In addition, the court imposed a ban on visits, the media and letters. Due to his state of health, however, he is not yet able to be questioned. He was not in a prison but in a closed medical facility, the police said.