Oslo in mourning after a deadly shooting

Strong emotion and silence, a few hours after the attack. Dozens of residents of Oslo (Norway) gathered on Saturday, June 25, to lay flowers and collect their thoughts. “We know there is hate. But for someone to go to such extreme actions… It’s just very sad”, commented a woman. Shortly after one o’clock in the night, a man opened fire from a first bar in the capital, then did it again in front of a busy gay club.

“At first I thought it was a fight, so I left. But then I heard it was a shooting, and someone was shooting a machine gun”, says a witness. The toll is heavy: two dead, and 21 injured, ten of them in serious condition. The alleged perpetrator was quickly arrested. Roger Berg, head of the Norwegian intelligence services, attributes to him “a long record of violence and threats” and considers that the shooting “is an act of Islamist terrorism”. The suspect is a 42-year-old Norwegian of Iranian origin, known to intelligence services since 2015.