A gunman opened fire on Oslo’s nightlife district early Saturday, killing two people and leaving more than 20 injured in what the Norwegian security service called an “Islamist terrorist act” during the annual festival of the LGBTQ pride of the capital.
Investigators said the suspect, identified as a 42-year-old Norwegian citizen from Iran, was arrested after setting fire to three sites in central Oslo.
Police said two men, one in his 50s and the other in his 60s, were killed in the shootings. Ten people were treated for serious injuries, but it was believed that none of them could endanger their lives. Eleven others had minor injuries.
People react while laying flowers at the scene of a shooting in central Oslo, Norway, on Saturday, June 25, 2022. (Photo AP / Sergei Grits)
The Norwegian Police Security Service raised its terrorist alert level from “moderate” to “extraordinary” – the highest level – after the attack, which caused panicked partygoers to flee into the streets or they were trying to hide from the gunman.
The acting head of the service, Roger Berg, described the attack as an “act of extreme Islamist terror” and said the suspect had “a long history of violence and threats” as well as mental health issues.
He said the agency, known by its Norwegian acronym PST, first learned of the suspect in 2015 and later worried that it had radicalized and formed part of an unspecified Islamist network.
Norwegian media named the suspect Zaniar Matapour, an Oslo resident who came to Norway with his family from a Kurdish part of Iran in the 1990s.
The suspect’s defense attorney, John Christian Elden, said his client had not spoken to investigators and warned against speculation about the reason.
People react by putting flowers at the scene of a shooting in central Oslo, Norway, on Saturday, June 25, 2022. (AP Photo / Sergei Grits) Flowers are left when a parade of spontaneous pride arrives at the scene of a shooting in central Oslo, Saturday, June 25, 2022. (Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NT via AP)
“He has given no reason. It is too early to conclude whether this is a hate crime or terrorism,” Elden said in an email to The Associated Press.
On the advice of police, organizers canceled a Pride parade that was set for Saturday as the highlight of a week-long festival. Anyway, dozens of people marched through the capital, waving rainbow flags.
Police lawyer Christian Hatlo said it was too early to say whether the gunman specifically targeted members of the LGBTQ community.
“We need to take a closer look, we don’t know yet,” he said.
Hatlo said the suspect was detained on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and terrorism, according to the number of people targeted at various locations. Police said civilians helped them detain the man in custody.
Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, right, visit the scene of a shooting in central Oslo, Norway, on Saturday, June 25, 2022. (AP ) The Crown Prince of Norway Haakon, center left, and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, center right, visit the scene of a shooting in central Oslo, Norway, on Saturday, June 25, 2022. (AP)
“Our overall assessment is that there is reason to believe that I wanted to cause serious fear to the population,” Hatlo said.
One of the shootings took place outside the London Pub, a popular bar among the city’s LGBTQ community, just hours before the parade began.
Benjamin Lau-Henriksen, 15, and his friend Li-Sullivan Köker Bolstad, 16, passed by the London Pub on their way home after a nearby Youth Pride party about two hours before the shooting. . If they had been old enough to drink, they would have been at the bar, they said.
“If we had been over 18 yesterday, we would have been there and we could have died,” Bolstad said. “I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I’m not because as queer young people we live in fear of something like this happening.”
Olav Roenneberg, a journalist for the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, said he witnessed the shooting.
Police are guarding a bar in central Oslo. (AP)
“I saw a man arrive at the scene with a bag. He grabbed a gun and started firing,” Roenneberg told NRK. “At first I thought it was a compressed air gun. Then the glass in the bar next door broke and I realized I had to run to take refuge.”
Another witness, Marcus Nybakken, 46, said he saw a lot of people running and screaming and thought it was a fight of blows.
“But then I heard it was a shooting and there was someone shooting with a machine gun,” Nybakken told Norwegian channel TV2.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said in a Facebook post that “the shooting in front of the London Pub in Oslo tonight was a cruel and deeply shocking attack on innocent people.”
He said that while the reason was unclear, the shooting had caused fear and pain to the LGBTQ community.
“We are all by your side,” Gahr Stoere wrote.
Police are concentrating on the site of a mass shooting in Oslo. (AP)
Christian Bredeli, who was in the London pub, told the Norwegian newspaper VG that he was hiding on the fourth floor with a group of about 10 people until they told him it was safe to leave.
“Many were afraid for their lives,” he said. “When we left we saw several people injured, so we understood that something serious had happened.”
Norwegian TV channel TV2 showed images of people running through the streets of Oslo in panic as they fired shots into the background.
Investigators said the suspect was known to police as well as PST, but not for any major violent crime. His criminal record included a narcotics offense and a gun crime for carrying a knife, Hatlo said.
Hatlo said police confiscated two weapons after the attack: a handgun and an automatic weapon, both of which he described as “non-modern” without giving details.
Police advised the organizers of the Pride festival to cancel a parade scheduled for Saturday.
Police are concentrating on the site of a mass shooting in Oslo. (AP)
“Oslo Pride therefore urges everyone who planned to participate or watch the parade not to show up. All events related to Oslo Pride are canceled,” organizers said on the official Facebook page of the event.
Inge Alexander Gjestvang, leader of FRI, a Norwegian organization for sexual and gender diversity, said the shooting shook the Nordic country’s LGBTQ community.
“We will be back later, proud, visible, but right now is not the time for that,” he told TV2.
King Harald V offered condolences to the relatives of the victims and said the royal family was “horrified” by the attack.
“We must be united to defend our values: freedom, diversity and respect for each other. We must continue to defend so that all people feel safe,” the monarch said.
Norway has a relatively low crime rate, but has experienced a series of lone wolf attacks in recent decades, including one of the worst mass shootings in Europe. In 2011, a right-wing extremist killed 69 people on the island of Utoya after firing a bomb in Oslo that left eight dead.
In 2019, another right-wing extremist killed his half-sister and then opened fire on a mosque, but was dominated before anyone was injured.
Last year, a Norwegian man armed with knives and a bow and arrow killed five people in a city in southern Norway. The assailant, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, was sentenced on Friday to compulsory psychiatric care.