Norway cops defuse bomb, arrest asylum seeker from Russia
A 17-year-old asylum-seeker from Russia was arrested on Sunday in connection with an explosive device found near a busy subway station in Norway’s capital that police defused before it detonated, authorities said.
The youth was detained on suspicion of handling explosives, but investigators do not know if he planned to carry out an attack with the homemade device, Signe Aaling, chief prosecutor for Norway’s PST security service, said.
Aaling described the explosive as “a primitive improvised explosive device with limited damage potential.”
“PST is now working on finding his intentions and find out whether others are involved,” she said.
The youth was not identified, but security service head Benedicte Bjornland said Norwegian intelligence was aware of him. He is an asylum-seeker from Russia who arrived in Norway with his family in 2010, Bjornland said.
Bjornland also alleged that the youth was part of “extreme Islamism” circles in Norway. He was arrested based on a tip from the public, Bjornland said without elaborating.
“It is likely that that attacks in France, German, Great Britain, Russia and Sweden can create a copycat effect in Norway with peoplewithIslamicsympathies,” Bjornland said, listing the locations of extremist attacks that have devastated Europe in the last year. “The attacks demonstrate how easy such attacks can be carried out, and prove to others that it is possible to make something similar,” she added.
STOCKHOLM SUSPECT SHOWED INTEREST IN IS
The suspected Stockholm truck attacker had shown interest in extremist groups and was facing deportation after being refused residency, Swedish police said on Sunday.
A second suspect has meanwhile been formally placed under arrest in connection with the attack that killed four people and injured 15 others, the Stockholm district court said.
The news came as thousands of people gathered to honour the dead and to stand against terrorism.
The first suspect, identified only as a 39-year-old man from Uzbekistan who was arrested hours after Friday’s attack, is suspected of having sped a stolen beer truck several hundred metres down the bustling pedestrian street Drottninggatan in the heart of Stockholm. The vehicle mowed down shoppers before slamming into the facade.