UPDATETwo people were killed and 19 others injured around 1 a.m. on Saturday in the center of the Norwegian capital Oslo. Three injured people are in serious condition and are being treated in hospital. The suspect who was arrested, a Norwegian of Iranian origin, is said to have opened fire near and in the London nightclub, which is especially popular with the gay community. The shooting is being investigated as an act of terrorism, police said.
Eyewitnesses
A reporter from Norway’s public broadcaster ‘NRK’, who saw the facts happen, says he saw a man with a bag approach the club, took a weapon from that bag and started firing.
Another eyewitness told the Norwegian newspaper ‘Dagbladet’ that he heard “15 to 20 shots”, which caused panic and people started running. People were standing – before the shots were fired – in the smoking area just outside the club.
A police spokesman tells Aftenposten that there are three crime scenes: near the London nightclub, at the Herr Nilsen Jazz Club and at the place of arrest. At 1.14 am the call came in to the police, and five minutes later the suspect was arrested.
Two weapons have been seized. “Everything now indicates that only one person committed these acts,” said police chief Tore Barstad at a press conference. Norwegian police are investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism. According to the Norwegian intelligence service PST, it is an “act of Islamist terrorism”. The terror threat level in Norway is increased by two steps to the highest level.
The suspect, a 42-year-old Norwegian with Iranian roots, has been on the intelligence agency’s radar since 2015 for radicalization and has a long history of violence and threats. He is said to belong to “an extremist Islamist contact network,” intelligence chief Roger Berg said at a press conference.
The clubs are located in the entertainment district of the Norwegian capital. This week Pride will be celebrated in various places in Oslo. A Pride Parade was also planned for today, but it has now been canceled by the organizers at the request of the police.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre called the shooting a “horrific and deeply shocking attack on innocent people”. “We don’t yet know the reasons for this terrible act, but to the gays who are now afraid and mourning, I want to say that we support you all,” he wrote on Facebook.
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