Norwegian police said on Sunday that the mosque had been fired the day before in the vicinity of Oslo as an "attempted terror attack".
"The mapping we have done shows that the perpetrator of the attack had extreme right-wing views," said Oslo police chief Rune Skjold about the suspect, a Norwegian in his 20s. years. "He had xenophobic positions, he wanted to sow terror," he added at a press conference.
The suspect refused to explain
The attack on Islamic center Al-Noor on Saturday afternoon in Baerum, a residential suburb of Oslo, caused a slight injury. Several hours after the attack, the police discovered the body of a young woman, a relative of the suspect, at their home, leading to the opening of an investigation for murder in connection with the shooting in the mosque.
Heard in the night by the investigators, the suspect refused to explain. "We have concluded that we are dealing with an attempted terrorist act," Rune Skjold said in an update on the investigation.
Investigators study a message posted on a forum evoking "a war of races"
Holding several weapons on him, the suspect shot inside the mosque where three worshipers were present. He had been restrained by an individual and handed over to the police dispatched to the scene.
A message that the suspect posted on an online forum shortly before the attack evokes a "race war" and pays tribute to the author of the attack on two mosques committed in March in New Zealand, during which 51 people were killed. The authenticity of the message and the identity of its author can not be determined with certainty at this stage.