Article authors:
Reuters
Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche
OSLO — On Saturday, shooters struck a horrific rampage in the gay bars and surrounding streets of Oslo, killing two and seriously injuring 10. Incurred. The day the city's LGBTQ community was scheduled to celebrate its annual pride parade.
Victims were shot dead inside and outside the famous gay bar and nightclub London Pub, which has been open since 1979, and at one other bar in the heart of the Norwegian capital.
"I saw a man arrive with a bag, he picked up a gun and started shooting," said Olav Roenneberg, a journalist for public broadcaster NRK in the area. "Then I saw the window broken and realized that I had to hide."
Suspect, 42-year-old Norwegian citizen from Iran Was detained a few minutes later, police said he believed he had acted alone. They added that two weapons, including a fully automatic gun, were recovered from the crime scene.
"There is reason to think this might be a hate crime," the official said at a press conference. "We are investigating whether the pride itself was the target or other motives."
Oslo police spokesman Rune Hekkelstrand is also investigating attacks as a possible terrorist act. I told Reuters that I was there.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has accused the shooting of "a terrible shocking attack on innocent people."
Police said the suspect was known to the authorities, including violence of a less serious nature.
The shooting took place early Saturday, 50 years after Norway's law on gay sex was abolished, just months later. Eleven people were slightly injured, police said.
The organizers of Oslo Pride canceled the parade on Saturday because of police advice. "We will soon be proud and visible again, but today we will mark a celebration of pride at home," they said.
Norway is a country of 5.4 million people, despite experiencing mass shootings motivated by hatred, such as when the far-right radical Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people in 2011. , Has a lower crime rate than many other Western countries. By Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche; edited by Sam Holmes and Pravin Char)
