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A 37-year-old Danish man named Espen Andersen Braathen has been arrested for the murder of five people with a bow and arrow in the Norwegian town of Kongsberg on Wednesday evening.
The police identified Braathen, a Muslim convert who was known to the police. Local authorities are treating the attacks as an "act of terror."
Police officers cordon off the scene where they are investigating in Kongsberg. Hakon Mosvold Larsen / NTB / AFP
The attack is the deadliest in the country since 2011, when far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people at a youth camp.
"We haven't had any reports about him in 2021, but earlier," said regional police chief Ole Bredrup Saeverud. "There were concerns over radicalization... those reports were followed up," he added.
Braathen's lawyer confirmed "he is explaining in detail and he is speaking and cooperating with the police."
There will be a psychiatric assessment before a decision on a trial is made.
Police were called about the attacks on Wednesday evening at 6:13 p.m., after reports of a man carrying a bow and arrow.
The suspect was arrested more than 30 minutes later, at 6:47 p.m., after slipping away from a first police attempt to stop him, prompting questions from the public over why it took so long.
The victims, four women and one man, were all aged between 50 and 70. Two other people were injured in the attacks, but survived.
"It is likely that all the killings took place after the first police sighting of him," Saeverud said.
The attacks in Norway have shaken the country, where murders are relatively rare.
An eyewitness told Reuters he saw "a man come walking with an arrow in his back" before police told the eyewitness to go inside.
Norway's outgoing Prime Minister Erna Solberg stands in front of ministers of her cabinet, after the outgoing government's last ministerial meeting at the castle in Oslo. /Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB / AFP
Norwegian police, who are not normally armed, have been instructed to be armed nationwide following the attacks.
Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen also expressed her sympathy, saying that it was "with great sadness" that she had heard about the "terrible attack" in Kongsberg.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres meanwhile said on Twitter he was "shocked and saddened by the tragic news coming from Norway."
