A man arrested over a lethal bow and arrow attack in the Norwegian town of Kongsberg on Wednesday was a recent convert to Islam and showed signs of radicalisation, according to multiple reports citing police officials on Thursday.
A 37-year-old Danish citizen has been arrested and charged with the bow and arrow attack Wednesday that killed five and injured two, Police chief Ole Bredrup Saeverud said Thursday.
Norway’s security service said the attack appears to have been an act of terror.
Police initially confronted the suspect six minutes after the attack began, though escaped after shooting arrows at officers, the BBC reported.
Police apprehended the suspect later, 35 minutes after the attack had started, and Saeverud said it is likely the five victims had been killed after the initial confrontation with police.
Though police did not identify the five victims—four women and one man—Saeverud said they were all aged 50 to 70 years.
Police have not named the suspect nor revealed what charges he faces.
Norway’s King Harald reportedly told the town of Kongsberg that “the rest of the nation stands with you” and offered sympathies to those injured and grieving. “It shakes us all when horrible things happen near us, when you least expect it, in the middle of everyday life on the open street.”
The attack is the deadliest in Norway since 2011, when far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people, most of them children. Norway commemorated the 10-year anniversary of the attack over summer.
