Kongsberg in Norway
Archer terrifies the city: dead and injured near Oslo
Police officers with search dogs comb through downtown Kongsberg, a town near Oslo, in the evening.
© Hakon Mosvold Larson / NTB / AFP
Serious violence occurred in the town of Kongsberg, not far from Oslo in southern Norway. According to police, an archer killed and injured several people. The background to the fact is unclear.
Several people were injured and killed in an act of violence in Kongsberg in southern Norway. The Norwegian police announced on Wednesday evening. The alleged individual perpetrator was caught. The act took place around 6.15 p.m. in the center of the city of Kongsberg, which is around 80 kilometers southwest of the capital Oslo. The perpetrator was armed with a bow and arrow – whether he was also carrying other weapons remained open until night. “The man who committed this crime has been arrested by the police. According to our information, only one person was involved,” said police chief Øyvind Aas in the evening. There is no search for further suspects. The situation is under control.
The police can unfortunately confirm that there have been several injuries and deaths, said the police chief. The injured were taken to the hospital. He did not initially name the exact number of victims. In the late evening, investigators reported that there were at least five fatalities, reports the AFP news agency.
Emergency calls: armed man shoots a bow and arrow at people
According to the police, the attacks occurred in several locations in the city. The center was cordoned off over a large area. At 6.13 p.m., several people reported to the police that an armed man was moving through the city and shooting people with a bow and arrow, Aas said. The act took place in several places in the center of Kongsberg. Several media reported a supermarket as a place of the action.
The background to the crime initially remained unclear. It is too early to say whether there could be a terrorist background. Aas emphasized that he could not answer many questions yet.
Police are investigating in the center of Kongsberg near Oslo after an archer allegedly killed several people there.
© Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB / DPA
Kongsberg: Mayor speaks of tragedy
A resident of Kongsberg told the NTB news agency that she heard the alarm go off in a supermarket – a Coop-Extra branch. She didn’t think much about it. But then she also heard police cars and ambulances. Reports that the violence was market-related have not been officially confirmed. A spokeswoman for the company did not want to comment specifically, according to the Norwegian media. The police searched garages and backyards in the city center with flashlights in the evening, the witness reported.
“This is a tragedy for all concerned. I have no words,” Kongsberg’s mayor Kari Anne Sand told the Norwegian newspaper “Verdens Gang”. The outgoing Prime Minister Erna Solberg said: “The reports that come from Kongsberg this evening are horrific. The perpetrator has committed terrible acts against several people. This is a very dramatic situation that the community is in Kongsberg hard hits. “The act occurred on the eve of a change of government. On Thursday, the social democrat Jonas Gahr Støre will present his cabinet in Oslo at noon. Solberg emphasized that the act had no impact on the change of government.
The threat situation in the country remains unchanged
Because of the incident, the police were temporarily armed, the police department announced late in the evening. It is a readiness measure – there are currently no indications of a change in the threat situation in the country. The Norwegian secret service PST was nevertheless informed of the incident.
Kongsberg is a small town in the southern Norwegian province of Viken. The popular ski resort has a good 27,500 inhabitants. The city is also a motor sports center and is known for its historic silver mines.
Memory of the Breivik attack awakens
The incident brings back bad memories: Ten years ago Norway suffered the worst terrorist attack in its modern history. On July 22, 2011, right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik detonated a bomb hidden in a white van in the government district of Oslo, killing eight people.
Then he drove to the island of Utøya, about 30 kilometers away, where he pretended to be a police officer and opened fire on the participants in the annual summer camp of the youth organization of the Social Democratic Labor Party.
69 people, mostly teenagers and young adults, were killed on Utøya. Breivik named right-wing extremist and Islamophobic motives for his actions. He was sentenced in August 2012 to the then maximum sentence of 21 years with a minimum imprisonment of ten years.