Connect with us

Agnes Isika Blog

Norwegian Police Ordered To Carry Firearms After Bow-And-Arrow Attack

Norwegian Police Ordered To Carry Firearms After Bow-And-Arrow Attack

Two people, including an off-duty police officer, were wounded on Wednesday evening following a bow-and-arrow attack in the Norwegian town of Kongsberg.

Following the attacks, the police directorate said it had ordered officers nationwide to carry firearms. Norwegian police are normally unarmed but officers have access to guns when needed.

A 37-year-old Danish citizen has been arrested for killing five people in a rare incident of mass killing which took place in different locations in the town, 68 km (42 miles) southwest of the capital, Oslo in Norway, police said on Thursday.

“This very serious situation is of course making a deep impression on Kongsberg and those who live here,” district police chief Oeyvind Aas said in a statement.

The suspect, who was apprehended, was believed to have been acting alone, police said. They said nothing about a possible motive.

Several of the attacks were committed with a bow and arrow, Aas said late on Wednesday, though police were also invenattack in Norway since 2011 when far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people, most of them teenagers at a youth camp.

The police said they were giving information on the man’s nationality after rumors swirled on social media about people not linked to the attacks.

Norway’s incoming prime minister, Jonas Gahr Stoere, who is due to take power on Thursday after winning a general election last month, said he had been kept informed by the outgoing government.

“What we’ve learned from Kongsberg bears witness of a gruesome and brutal act,” Stoere said in a statement to news agency NTB.

The attacks went on for more than half an hour over a “large area” of Kongsberg, including at a Coop Extra grocery store, the Aftenposten newspaper cited police as saying.

Investigators are considering whether the attacks amounted to an act of terrorism and said they would give more details of the incident later on Thursday.

Police were interrogating the suspect and he was cooperating, his defense lawyer said.

“He is cooperating and is giving detailed statements regarding this event,” lawyer Fredrik Neumann told public broadcaster NRK.

Images from one of the crime scenes showed an arrow that appeared to be stuck in the wall of a wood-paneled building.

Continue Reading
You may also like...
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in News

TrueTalk with Agnes

Today's Quote

Love cures people—both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.

Trending

Contributors

LAGOS WEATHER
To Top