Oslo shooting: Norway attack being treated as Islamist terrorism, police say

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Oslo shooting: Norway attack being treated as Islamist terrorism, police sayPublished1 hour ago

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[size=0.75]IMAGE SOURCE, EPA
Image caption, Tributes are being paid at the crime scene in the aftermath of overnight shootings in the centre of Oslo

A 42-year-old man has been arrested and charged with murder, attempted murder and terrorist acts after a shooting in the centre of Norway's capital, Oslo.

Two people were killed and 21 injured, 10 of them seriously, in a busy nightlife district early on Saturday.

Police said they consider the attack an act of extreme Islamist terrorism.

The victims were shot in and outside the London Pub, a popular LGBTQ+ venue, and near the Herr Nilsen jazz club and another pub.

The shooting started at about 01:15 local time on Saturday (23:15 GMT Friday), officials said.

Eyewitnesses said the suspect took out a gun from his bag and started firing, forcing terrified people to either throw themselves to the ground or flee.

The attacker was arrested by police officers - who were helped by bystanders - minutes later. Two weapons were retrieved at the crime scene by police, one of them a fully automatic gun.

The authorities later said the suspect was a Norwegian national.

The terror alert level in Norway has now been raised to its highest level, though the country's PST intelligence service said it currently had "no indication" further attacks were likely.

Oslo's annual gay Pride parade was due to be held on Saturday, and was formally cancelled on police advice.

But despite that, hundreds of people marched near the scene later in the day, shouting: "We're here, we're queer, we won't disappear!"

"I think it's fantastic that this march is taking place, otherwise he would have won," one woman in her 50s told AFP news agency.

Rainbow flags and flowers were laid near the scene of the attack, which was sealed off by police tape, and bystanders comforted each other with hugs.

The gunman was known to security services since 2015 as a "suspected radicalised Islamist", and had a history of mental illness, Norway's PST intelligence service said.

"There is reason to think that this may be a hate crime," police said earlier. "We are investigating whether... Pride was a target in itself or whether there are other motives."

King Harald, Norway's monarch, said he and his family were "horrified" by the violence. He said "we must stand together" to defend "freedom, diversity and respect for each other".

Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere called it a "terrible and deeply shocking attack on innocent people".

"To all the homosexuals who now are afraid and are in mourning, I say we are all with you," he said on Facebook.

In the US, the White House said it was horrified by the attack, expressing solidarity with its ally Norway, according to Reuters news agency.

[size=0.75]IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES
Image caption, Hundreds of people on Saturday marched in Oslo, chanting: "We're here, we're queer, we won't disappear!"

[size=0.75]IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES

Witnesses who were at the London Pub have told how they fled to the basement, where 80 to 100 terrified partygoers were trying to hide.

Bili Blum-Jansen told TV2: "Many called their partners and family, it felt almost as if they were saying goodbye. Others helped calm down those who were extremely terrified."

Another survivor told how he was hit by flying glass.

"I just noticed that a shot was fired, and I was hit by a shard of glass. There were more and more and more shots, so I escaped into the inner bar and tried to get as many as possible with me," he told Norway's public broadcaster NRK.

[size=0.75]IMAGE SOURCE, EPA
Image caption, The scene of the attack has been sealed off by police

[size=0.75]IMAGE SOURCE, REUTERS
Image caption, Police are investigating whether Oslo's gay Pride was a target in the attack

"I saw a man arrive with a bag, he picked up a gun and started to shoot," said journalist Olav Roenneberg of public broadcaster NRK, who was in the area at the time.

A woman told the Verdens Gang newspaper that the gunman had taken careful aim at his targets. "When I understood that it was serious, I ran. There was a man covered in blood motionless on the floor," she said.

Another man told the newspaper he had seen a lot of people on the ground with head wounds.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-61933817