The Norwegian police are currently classifying the fatal shooting in Oslo’s London Pub on Saturday night as an Islamist act of terrorism. That said a spokesman for the police security service PST at a press conference in Oslo on Saturday afternoon. At the same time, the PST upgraded the terrorist threat from moderate to exceptional. The police currently have no indication that further attacks are planned, but experience shows that acts of terrorism can inspire potential copycats. The alleged perpetrator, a Norwegian of Iranian origin, is in police custody and was due to be questioned on Saturday afternoon.
Two people died and at least 21 were injured in an attack on Saturday night in Oslo’s London Pub, a popular meeting place for the country’s queer scene. Olaf Rønneberg, a journalist from the public broadcaster NRK, was in the London pub himself and described how he saw the perpetrator coming. He put his bag down, pulled out a gun and started shooting. “At first I thought it was an airgun. Then glass broke and I understood I had to take cover.”
The attack happened on the eve of the Pride parade, which was planned to be particularly large in Oslo this year. Many people from the LBGTQ scene met to celebrate. “There were so many happy people on the streets. People were celebrating Pride and the sidewalk cafes were full,” Rønneberg told the newspaper Aften post. “Then everything fell into panic and desperation and there were dead people on the streets.”
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Störe spoke of a “terrible and deeply shocking attack” on innocent people. “On this day we should celebrate love and paint the streets with the colors of the rainbow. Instead, we are filled with sorrow,” Støre said at a press conference on Saturday. “We don’t yet know if the queer scene was the target, but we do know that the queer scene is the victim.” A visibly battered culture minister, Anette Trettebergstuen, told the press that the rainbow was now “colored black”: “Last night my friends were shot and innocent people were killed.” King Harald was also “horrified” by the act in a statement from the palace. “We must stand together to defend our values: freedom, diversity and respect for one another. We must remain committed to making all people feel safe.”
As early as Saturday morning, the police had called the arrested alleged perpetrator an “old acquaintance”. The 42-year-old has had multiple run-ins with the law over the past two decades and also appears to have a history of mental illness, according to court documents cited by Norwegian media. The police security service PST has known about him since 2015, spokesman Roger Berg reported on Saturday. At times there was concern that he might become radicalized in an Islamist environment.
Apparently, the 42-year-old moved to Norway with his family from the Kurdish part of Iran in the early 1990s. In 1999 he was first convicted of a stabbing in a nightclub, the sentence was relatively mild with 30 days in prison, in the verdict that Aften post quoted, it said the court took into account his young age and “obvious mental health problems”. Police later picked him up for cocaine possession and a shooting. In September 2020, he was fined for carrying a switchblade in a public place. In the court documents, among other things, depression and delusions were mentioned. He has apparently been receiving a disability pension since 2013.
On the advice of the police, the organizers initially canceled the Pride parade through Oslo and other events for Saturday. However, that did not stop several thousand people from marching through the city with rainbow flags to commemorate the victims of the night. The fact shows that queer people still have good reasons for their Pride parade, said Jonas Nilsen Sripilom Aften post. “We’re not marching just because it’s fun and we can dress up in glitter and color. We’re marching because we’re still hated. The fight isn’t over yet.”