Act of terror: Man kills 5 in Norway with bow, arrows

KONGSBERG, NORWAY: Norway’s domestic security agency said a bow-and-arrow attack that killed five people appears to have been an act of terrorism.

The agency, known by its acronym PST, said on Thursday that Wednesday night’s attack in a small Norwegian town “currently appear to be an act of terrorism”.

“The investigation will clarify in more detail what the incidents were motivated by,” it said in a statement. It added that the suspect “is known to the PST from before, without the PST being able to provide details about him”. Police said on Thursday that the Danish man suspected of the attack is a Muslim convert who was previously flagged as having been radicalised.

“Attacks on random people in public places are a recurring modus operandi among extremist Islamists carrying out terror in the West,” the domestic security agency said.

The agency said that “the most probable scenario of an extremely Islamist terrorist attack in Norway is an attack carried out by one or a few perpetrators with simple weapon types, against targets with few or no security measures.”

The PST said the terror threat level for Norway remains unchanged and was considered “moderate.”

The man is suspected of having shot at people in a number of locations in the town of Kongsberg on Wednesday evening. Several of the victims were in a supermarket, police said.

Ann Iren Svane Mathiassen, the police attorney who is leading the investigation, told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that the victims were four women and one man between the ages of 50 and 70.