Five people were killed and two more wounded in an attack yesterday evening by a man using a bow and arrows in the Norwegian town of Kongsberg, outside Oslo. It was the deadliest attack in Norway in a decade, the authorities said. A 37-year-old Danish man living in Kongsberg has been taken into custody.
The killings have left a country where murder is extremely rare on edge, as Norwegians waited to learn what had happened — and why.
“The incident has left us all shaken,” said Erna Solberg, the Norwegian prime minister. “The news is terrifying. I understand that people are getting scared.”
The killings mobilized public services nationwide. Hospitals were put on alert, as was the Justice Ministry. Specialized national police units were summoned, and helicopters circled over the scene of the attack. Across the country, the Norwegian police, who are usually unarmed, were given special authorization to carry weapons.
Motive: “It is natural to consider if it is a terror event,” Oyvind Aas, an assistant police chief, said, adding that it was “too soon to say for sure what the man’s motivation is.” Investigators are not looking for accomplices.