Attacker in Norway Kills Five People

A lone attacker stabbed eight people in a small town near Oslo after initially firing arrows at some bystanders (Metziker).

A man killed five people and wounded three others in Kongsberg, Norway, on October 13. Police first heard reports of a man walking around the small town with a bow and arrow at 6:13 PM, and they arrested a suspect half an hour later. The victims, between the ages of 50 and 70, were spread out among various locations in the town. Early media reports claimed that the attacker used the bow and arrow to kill his victims, but police have since clarified that he stabbed them with a knife.

Local police say that the suspect, a Danish man named Espen Andersen Braathen, acted alone and will face charges for five counts of murder. Braathen’s arrest was not his first incident with Norwegian police. Authorities flagged Braathen in 2020 for suspected radicalization following his conversion to Islam. Braathen spoke to police officers during that encounter, but he faced no criminal charges at the time. 

Authorities have given conflicting statements about Braathen’s motive. Ole Saeverud, the regional police chief, mentioned the suspect’s religious beliefs and said that there “had been worries of the man having been radicalized.” On the other hand, Assistant Chief of Police Per Thomas Omholt told reporters that Braathen’s mental health was a more likely explanation, saying, “The hypothesis around jihad has not been strengthened in the same way as the health hypothesis."

Given that the incident in Kongsberg was the deadliest terrorist attack in Norway in more than a decade, the attack has implications for future security policy. Norwegian police officers are usually unarmed and need permission from their superiors to use firearms. Although the national police directorate said that it has no reason to expect more violence, it ordered officers across the country to carry guns following the attack. 

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre spoke about the need for adequate security on October 14, saying, “Preparedness must be channeled through the services we have. A police force that is able to mobilize, clarify and find answers. But we must also have the preparedness needed across our society as a whole to prevent this type of serious incident from happening.” 

Norway has largely earned its reputation as a low-crime country, given that it had only 0.47 homicides per 100,000 people in 2020. The fact that it has one of the lowest murder rates in Europe makes attacks like these even more shocking for the local population.