Norway mourns victims of shooting during Pride festival
OSLO — Norway’s prime minister and members of the royal family joined mourners at a memorial service Sunday at Oslo Cathedral for the victims of a shooting attack as the capital held its annual LGBTQ Pride festival.
A gunman opened fire in central Oslo’s nightlife district early Saturday, killing two people — a man in his 50s and another in his 60s — and wounding more than 20 others in what the Norwegian security service called an “Islamist terror act.”
A suspect, identified as a 42-year-old Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, is in custody. The capital’s Pride parade was scheduled to take place Saturday but was canceled.
The crime scene included the London Pub, a bar that is popular with the city’s LGBTQ community. Police investigators said it was unclear whether hatred of people based on sexual orientation and gender identity motivated the attack.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said in a speech during Sunday’s memorial service that “the shooting in the night hours put an end to the Pride parade, but it did not stop the fight and the efforts to fight discrimination, prejudice and hatred.”
He also addressed Norway’s Muslim community.
“I know how many of you felt when it turned out that the perpetrator belonged to the Islamic community. Many of you experienced fear and unrest. You should know this: We stand together, we are one community and we are responsible for the community together,” Stoere said.
Norwegian media have identified the suspect as Oslo resident Zaniar Matapour, who arrived in Norway with his family from a Kurdish part of Iran in the 1990s.
Matapour had a prior criminal record that included a narcotics offense and a weapons offense for carrying a knife. Investigators said they seized a handgun and an automatic weapon after the shooting.
The Norwegian domestic security agency said Saturday that it first became aware of the suspect in 2015 and later grew concerned he had become radicalized and was part of an unspecified Islamist network.
On Sunday, Norwegian news outlets reported that Matapour allegedly was in close contact with an Islamic extremist living in Norway whom Norwegian police had been aware of for a long time.
The extremist, identified as Arfan Bhatti, was known partly for his strong anti-gay views, Norwegian public broadcaster NRK said.