Espen Andersen Bråthen, the murderer of Norway: a Danish convert to Islam and singled out for radicalization who may have mental problems

• Investigation Bow and arrow attack in Norway: the killer was known to the police for his "radicalization"

• Norway A man kills five people and wounds two with a bow and arrows in Kongsberg

A judge decides on Friday whether to order provisional prison for

, the 37-year-old Dane who acknowledged killing five people in a

.

Excitement is still running high in the usually peaceful town of

, where residents gathered in silence and by candlelight Thursday night, just 24 hours after the attack that left five dead and three wounded.

"We are a small community and we need to be there for each other," explained Kristine Johansen, a 29-year-old teacher.

Described by the police as a 37-year-old Danish citizen

, Bråthen admitted on questioning that he had committed the attack with a bow and arrows before being arrested.

"We would like to keep him on remand for at least four weeks," said the prosecutor in charge of the case, Ann Siren Svane Mathiassen.

The Kongsberg court will decide on the matter on Friday morning.

The presence of the attacker who, according to the police, is

probably not even necessary

.

In light of the modus operandi and the alerts about a possible radicalization, the investigators are leaning towards the trail of

.

"There is no doubt that the act itself presents indications that suggest that it may be a terrorist act, but now it is important that the investigation progress and that the motive of the suspect is clarified," said the head of the Norwegian security services (PST ) Hans Sverre Sjøvold.

The possibility that Andersen suffers

is not ruled out either

.

"He is a person with comings and goings in the healthcare system for some time," said Sverre Sjøvold.

The prosecutor also assures that the subject began to undergo a psychiatric evaluation on Thursday, but his conclusions may take months.

On police surveillance

The suspect "is an acquaintance" of the Norwegian security services (PST), although few details were given about him.

"There have been fears linked to radicalization in the past," explained a police official, Ole Bredrup Saeverud.

These suspicions dated back to 2020, even earlier, and led to a police follow-up.

According to Norwegian media, Bråthen had some legal record.

In 2020 he was banned from visiting two relatives for

and in 2012 he had been convicted of burglary and purchase of hashish.

In a 2017 video recovered now by various media, he is seen preaching his faith in a threatening tone: "I am a messenger. I have come with a warning: Is this really what you want? (...) Be witnesses that I am a Muslim ".

Bråthen, who probably acted alone according to the police, killed four women and a man in their 50s and 70s at various sites in Kongsberg, a small city of 25,000 where he himself resided, 80 km west of Oslo.

Under anonymity, a neighbor described him as

, with imposing stature and shaved hair.

"He never smiled, no expression on his face," he said, assuring that he was "always alone."

Norway has thwarted several attempts at Islamist attacks in the past.

However, the Nordic country has been hit by two far-right attacks in the last decade, such as the one committed by Anders Behring Breivik in 2011, in which 77 people died.

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