OSLO —
Norwegian police have arrested a man
suspected of “Islamist terrorism” after two people were killed and 21 wounded
in shootings near a gay bar in the capital Oslo on Saturday, causing the city’s
Pride march to be canceled.
اضافة اعلان
The suspect, who was already known to the
anti-terrorism services, was arrested quickly after the shooting started around
1am in central Oslo.
Norway’s domestic intelligence service PST, which is
responsible for counterterrorism, said it was treating the attack as “an act of
Islamist terrorism”.
The suspect “has a long history of violence and
threats”, PST’s chief Roger Berg said.
The suspect had been on the PST’s radar “since 2015
in connection with concerns about his radicalization” and membership “in an
Islamist extremist network”, Berg told a press conference.
Intelligence services spoke to the suspect last
month but did not consider him to have “violent intentions”, Berg said.
He added that the
PST was also aware the suspect had
“difficulties with his mental health”.
The suspect’s lawyer, John Christian Elden, told
Norwegian news agency NTB he expected his client to be put under “judicial
observation” to determine his mental state, as is usually done in such cases.
Police had earlier said the suspect was a
42-year-old Norwegian man of Iranian descent.
Norwegian media named him as Zaniar Matapour,
describing him as a father of Iranian Kurdish origin who arrived in Norway as a
child.
Police said that of the 21 people wounded in the
attack, 10 were seriously injured — but none had life-threatening injuries. An
automatic weapon and a handgun were also seized.
Police said they received the first reports at
1:14am, and the suspect was arrested five minutes later.
They added that the suspect was quickly apprehended
thanks to the “heroic contribution” of bystanders.
Generally peaceful
Norway was the scene of bloody
attacks on July 22, 2011, when right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik
killed 77 people.
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