Two shot dead in terror attack at Oslo gay club
TWO people were shot dead and 21 injured yesterday in a suspected terror attack against the gay community in Norway.
An Iranian-born suspect – named by local media as plumber Zaniar Matapour, 42 – is being held by police on suspicion of murder, hate crime and terrorism. The attacker was pinned to the ground inside the London Pub, the bestknown LGBTQ+ venue in Norway’s capital Oslo in the early hours of yesterday. Two weapons, including a fully automatic gun, were recovered.
The deceased were two men in their 50s and 60s, police said.
The Norwegian authorities later raised the country’s terror threat level from ‘moderate’ to ‘extraordinary’ and cancelled the Oslo Pride parade that was due to take place yesterday. Roger Berg, acting chief of the country’s domestic intelligence agency, PST, described the shootings as an ‘extreme Islamist terror act’.
Clubber Bili Blum-Jansen described hiding in the basement of the pub with up to 100 other people during the attack which began at about 1.15am.
He said: ‘Many called their partners and family. It felt almost as if they were saying goodbye. Others helped calm down those who were extremely terrified.
‘I had a bit of panic and thought that if the shooter or shooters were to arrive, we’d all be dead. There was no way out.’
The suspect is believed to be a radicalised Islamist with a history of mental illness and has been known to intelligence services since 2015.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said: ‘Everything indicates that this has been an attack by an Islamist extremist.
‘We don’t [yet] know if the gay community was the intended target, but we know it is a victim.’
Norway was rocked by the deadliest terrorist attack in Europe in July 2011 when far-Right extremist Anders Breivik killed 77 people with a car bomb in Oslo and a shooting spree on the island of Utoya.
In October last year, a 37-year-old Danish convert to Islam killed four women and a man with a crossbow in Kongsberg, south-west of Oslo.