The suspect involved in the bow and arrow attack in Norway had reportedly converted to Islam and police have said there are concerns that he had been radicalised.
Five people were killed in the horrific attack in the town of Kongsberg on Wednesday night, and were aged between 50 and 70.
It is believed that the 37-year-old Danish citizen acted alone and attacked the victims after police first confronted him and he was then arrested and charged after the incident
Police have said it is too early to say if the case will be treated as terror-related, but confirmed the man had converted to Islam and had been flagged as being potentially radicalised.
“There earlier had been worries of the man having been radicalised,” Police chief Ole B Saeverud told a press conference. Officers had last been in touch with the man in 2020, the BBC reports.
(Image: NTB/AFP via Getty Images)
The man, who lives in Kongsberg, which is 42 miles from the capital of Oslo, reportedly opened fire in a Coop Extra supermarket at about 6:15pm, injuring several people including an off-duty police officer who was shot in the back with an arrow.
Police first received reports of a man carrying a bow and arrow at 16:12 GMT on Wednesday. He was first observed by a police unit a few minutes later but managed to escape.
The man fired arrows at the police and he was only apprehended after a hunt of about 35 minutes.
“It is likely that all the killings took place after the first police sighting of him,” Saeverud said.
The death toll was the worst of any attack in Norway since 2011, when far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people, most of them teenagers at a youth camp.
Witnesses claimed the attacker began firing into a supermarket with arrows measuring around 70cm long, according to a local journalist.
Following the attacks, the police directorate said it had ordered officers nationwide to carry firearms. Norwegian police are normally unarmed but officers have access to guns and rifles when needed.
(Image: NTB/AFP via Getty Images)
“This is an extra precaution. The police have no indication so far that there is a change in the national threat level,” the directorate said in a statement.
One shocked woman said only narrowly missed being caught up in the rampage at the supermarket thanks to her stopping for a cigarette.
The traumatised witness, named only as Hasine, recounted how panic set in when she saw someone run past her terrace and then spied a man standing on a street corner with a quiver over his shoulder and a bow in his hand.
Hansine told TV2 the armed man soon disappeared and she saw people running for their lives, including a woman cradling a child in her arms, as tales of terror emerged following the deadly attack in Kongsberg.
Other witnesses have described seeing victims’ bodies on the floor and hearing screams for help.
Ida Skinness was on her way out when her flatmate shouted at her to stay inside.
Ida told TV2: “Then I heard howls and screams outside, and saw people running and then a lot of blue lights.”
Photos on social media show discarded arrows on the street, while NRK published an image of an arrow sticking out of a wall.
Norway’s TV2 reported the suspect was also c
