Five Died In Bow And Arrow Attack In Kongsberg, Norwegian PM: Terrible

Police line illustration. (Unsplash/David von Diemar)

JAKARTA - A man armed with a bow and arrow killed five people and injured two in a series of attacks in the Norwegian city of Kongsberg on Wednesday, local police said, naming the suspect in custody.

"The man used a bow and arrow for several attacks," police chief Oeyvind Aas told reporters, citing Reuters Oct. 14.

He said Norwegian security forces were also conducting an investigation regarding the possibility of other weapons being used in this incident.

"The man has been arrested. From the information we have now, this person carried out this act alone," Aas added.

One of the victims and injured in the attack, was an off-duty police officer.

The VG newspaper showed an image of an arrow that seemed to be stuck in a wooden paneled building wall.

Wednesday's attack took place in a "large area" of Kongsberg, a municipality of about 28,000 people in southeastern Norway, 68 km (42 miles) from the capital, Oslo.

In response to the incident, the government said the police had launched a massive investigation.

"The reports coming out of Kongsberg tonight are appalling," Prime Minister Erna Solberg told a news conference.

"I understand that a lot of people are scared, but it's important to stress that the police are now in control."

After the attack, the police directorate said it had ordered officers across the country to carry firearms. Norwegian police are usually unarmed, but officers have access to guns and rifles when needed.

"This is an extra precautionary measure. The police have so far had no indication that there has been a change in the national threat level," the directorate said in a statement.

Aas said police would investigate whether the attack was an act of terrorism.

Meanwhile, Norway's Minister of Justice and Public Security, Monica Maeland, has received an update on the attack and is monitoring the situation closely, the ministry said.

Separately, citing CNN, the attack came more than a decade since Norway's worst terrorist attack.

In July 2011, 77 people were killed, mostly teenagers, in a bomb and gun attack by Norwegian far-right extremist Anders Behring Brevik. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison, the maximum possible sentence.

Then, in August 2019, a man stormed an Oslo mosque armed with a gun. That year, the country's intelligence services reported that far-right terrorism was on the rise globally, and warned that the country was likely to be targeted in the near future.