The attacker has already been arrested, the police announce. At the moment, the reasons for the attack remain unknown
A man armed with a bow and arrows killed and wounded several people on Wednesday in Kongsberg, in southeastern Norway, before being detained, police announced. “Unfortunately, we can confirm that there are several injuries and also, unfortunately, several deaths,” Øyvind Aas, a local police official, told a news conference. “The man who committed this act was arrested by the police and, as far as we know, there is only one person involved,” he added.
At the moment, the motives for the attack, which occurred at various locations in the city center of Kongsberg, remain unknown. The police did not give details about the suspect, except that he is a man and that he was taken to the police station in the neighboring city of Drammen. “We are not looking for other people,” Øyvind Aas said. The injured were taken to hospitals. At the moment neither his number nor his status is known.
The incident took place shortly before 6.30 p.m. (4.30 p.m. GMT) in the center of Kongsberg. On Twitter, local police said witnesses saw a man, armed with a bow and arrows, and that he used them against people. The authorities urged the population to stay in their homes. Several neighborhoods have been cordoned off and television images show a large deployment of heavily armed police and ambulances in the area of the attack.
Norway, a generally peaceful country, has been the scene of far-right attacks in the past. On July 22, 2011, Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people by detonating a bomb near the government headquarters in Oslo, before opening fire at a Labor Youth rally on the island of Utøya.
In August 2019, Philip Manshaus fired at a mosque on the outskirts of Oslo, before being subdued by the crowd, without seriously injuring himself. Before the attack, he shot down his adopted Asian sister for racism. The authorities have also thwarted several Islamist attacks.
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