Norway: archery attack looks like "terrorist act", investigators say
Residents lay candles and flowers in honor of the victims of the attack the day before, in Kongsberg, October 14, 2021. © Terje Bendiksby, NTB, AFP
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2 min
According to Norwegian investigators, the bloody attack on Wednesday, October 13, when a man armed with a bow fired arrows at passers-by in the small town of Kongsberg, looks like a "
terrorist act
".
Four women and a man were killed and two injured are still in hospital.
A real test for this country already hit several times by terrorism, but also for its new Prime Minister, who takes office this Thursday, October 14.
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In the aftermath of
this attack
, it is the trail of Islamist terrorism that seems favored by investigators. These have not pronounced definitively on the motives of the murderer, but "
there is no doubt that the act itself has appearances which make one think that it can be a terrorist act
", even if "
it It is now important that the investigation progresses and that the motivations of the suspect are clarified
, ”the head of the Norwegian security services (PST), Hans Sverre Sjøvold, told a press conference. Investigators confirmed that he converted to Islam, later radicalizing.
The suspect, a 37-year-old Dane who has been living in Kongsberg for several years, has admitted the facts and appears to be cooperating with the police.
He "
is known
" to the PST and has already been implicated in several cases, but not recently or in 2021. Several Norwegian media also report a psychiatric history, reports from Stockholm our correspondent in the region,
Frédéric Faux.
"
He is a person who has been going back and forth in the health care system for a while
", also indicated Hans Sverre Sjøvold, thus raising doubts about his mental state.
The deadly raid, which lasted more than half an hour in a busy district of Kongsberg, 80 kilometers west of the capital Oslo, killed five people - four women and a man aged between 50 and 70 - and injured three others.
The attack occurred in several locations in Kongsberg, including on the street, inside a home and in a supermarket where a police officer, who was not on duty at the time, was injured.
The assailant likely acted alone, police said.
Painful memories for a new prime minister
Alerted at 6:12 p.m. (4:12 p.m. GMT), the police arrested the suspect more than half an hour later at 6:47 p.m.
They came under fire from arrows at the time of the arrest and replied with warning shots.
Police said the suspect also used other weapons, the nature of which has not been specified.
The attack awakened painful memories all over Norway.
The country, this summer, has just commemorated
the ten years of the Utoya attack
, during which a far-right terrorist killed 77 people.
It is also a test for
the new Social Democratic Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre
, who called the attack "
cruel and brutal
".
He took office on Thursday, after eight years in the government of conservative Erna Solberg.
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