Norway attack appears to be terrorism: police
KONGSBERG, Norway — A bow-and-arrow attack in which a Danish convert to Islam is suspected of killing five people in a Norwegian town appears to have been an act of terror, police said on Thursday.
Investigators named the suspect as Espen Andersen Braathen, a 37-year-old living in the Kongsberg municipality where the attacks took place on Wednesday evening.
A police attorney told Reuters that Braathen had acknowledged killing the victims. His lawyer confirmed only that Braathen was cooperating with police and giving a detailed statement.
Police had been concerned about signs of radicalization in the suspect before the attacks, carried out with a bow and arrow and other weapons, a senior officer said.
Flags flew at half-mast across Kongsberg after the deaths of four women and a man, all aged between 50 and 70. Three others, including an off-duty police officer, were wounded.
Kongsberg resident Markus Kultima, 23, who works in a beer shop, witnessed parts of the attack.
“I saw a man come walking with an arrow in his back,” Kultima told Reuters. He said it was the off-duty officer who told him to head home.
“I had to walk in the direction where that guy came from, Kultima said, describing doing so as “very heavy.”
Braathen was in custody and was believed to have acted alone, police said. A court will decide on Friday how long police can keep him in custody.
“The events at Kongsberg appear at the moment to be an act of terror,” the PST security police said in a statement, adding the investigation would determine the motive.