5 People Killed in Bow and Arrow Attack in Norway
The Norwegian police announced that a man armed with a crossbow killed several people and wounded others in Kongsberg, southeast of the country.
Armed with a bow and arrow, a Danish man targeted shoppers in a small Norwegian town on Wednesday, killing five before getting arrested.
Two other people were wounded and hospitalized in intensive care, including an off-duty officer visiting the shop where the attack took place, authorities revealed.
The police chief in the community of Kongsberg, near the capital of Oslo, said that “a confrontation” between officers and the assailant took place, but did not elaborate in that regard.
“The man who carried out the act has been arrested by the police, and there is no active search for more people. Based on the information we have, there is one person behind this,” police Chief Oeyving Aas has announced.
Acting Prime Minister Erna Solberg described the attack as “gruesome” and said it was too early to speculate on a motive. The PM-designate, Jonas Gahr Store, who is expected to take office Thursday, called the assault “a cruel and brutal act” in comments to Norwegian news agency NTB.
These attacks are a rare occurrence in Norway, yet not unprecedented: The country’s worst murdering rampage was on July 22, 2011, when right-wing extremist Anders Breivik set off a bomb in Oslo, killing eight people. Afterward, he headed to Utoya Island where he stalked the teen members of the Labor Party’s youth wing before killing another 69 victims.