Norway probes ‘Islamist terror’ in Oslo shooting hours before Pride march, with 2 killed, 21 injured
- The early-hours tragedy on Saturday happened shortly before the capital city’s LGBT community was due to hold its annual Pride event
- Some victims were shot in a gay nightclub; a man with ‘mental health difficulties’, aged 42 and ‘on radar since 2015’, has been arrested
Norwegian police have arrested a man suspected of “Islamist terrorism” after two people were killed and 21 wounded in shootings in the normally tranquil country’s capital Oslo on Saturday, causing the city’s Pride march to be cancelled.
The suspect, a 42-year-old Norwegian man of Iranian descent already known to the anti-terrorism services, was arrested shortly after the shooting started around 1:00am in three locations in central Oslo, including a gay bar.
The arrested man “is suspected of homicide, attempted homicide and a terrorist act”, said senior police official Christian Hatlo.
Norway’s domestic intelligence service PST, which is responsible for counterterrorism, said it was treating the attack as “an act of Islamist terrorism”.
The suspect “has a long history of violence and threats” and has been on the PST’s radar “since 2015 in connection with concerns about his radicalisation” and membership “in an Islamist extremist network”, said PST’s chief Roger Berg.