Archer goes on rampage in Norway, killing five
OSLO, Norway — A man armed with a bow and arrow went on a killing spree in a Norwegian town outside Oslo on Wednesday, leaving five people dead and two others wounded, authorities said.
The attack took place in Kongsberg, a town of 26,000 people about 50 miles southwest of Oslo. A suspect was reported to be in custody.
“The information we now have, this person carried out these actions alone,” Police Chief Oyvind Aas said.
The attack began shortly after 6 p.m. as the suspect began making his way through the center of town as residents were urged to seek shelter indoors.
A half-hour later, a suspect was in custody, police said.
Across the country, the Norwegian police, who ordinarily aren’t armed, were given authorization to carry weapons “due to the serious incident in Kongsberg,” authorities said in a statement late Wednesday.
They described it as a precaution.
“The police currently have no concrete indications that there is a change in the threat level in the country,” the statement said.
But the attack left the country on edge.
“The incident has left us all shaken,” Prime Minister Erna Solberg said. “The news is terrifying. I understand that people are getting scared.”
Authorities didn’t immediately release information about the suspect.
“It is natural to consider if it is a terror event,” Aas said at a news conference, adding that it was “too soon to say for sure what the man’s motivation is.”
Solberg made a similar point.
“I emphasize that we do not know if it is terror or not,” she said.
The assailant ranged over a broad swath of the city, leaving investigators with an extensive crime scene to scour.
No police officers were injured in the attack, authorities said.
A little more than two years ago, a young man was charged with attempted murder after he entered a mosque near Oslo armed and wearing body armor and a helmet. He was overpowered by a worshipper.
And in 2011, a lone political extremist bombed a government center and lay siege to an island summer camp for young members of the governing Labor Party, killing 77 people.