Two women held captive in Bergen flat

Norwegian police have freed two women who were held captive in an apartment in Bergen by a man armed with a knife and axe.

Published: 13 August 2013 10:02 CEST

Norwegian policewoman - Norwegian Justice Department

The women, both in their 20s, were rescued after an armed squad stormed the apartment early on Tuesday morning.

"We got the message that a man was holding two women against their will in an apartment, Preben Wallestad of the Hordaland police told Bergens Avisen. "The perpetrator was armed with an axe and a knife, and we therefore sent an armed patrol."

Two men were arrested without incident and are now being questioned.

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Police in Norway will no longer be armed after the temporary order was dropped. Pictured is a police van in Oslo. Photo by David Hall on Flickr.

The order for all police in Norway to be armed following an attack in Kongsberg last week was lifted on Friday morning.

The police said in a statement Friday that, based on the information it had received from police security service PST, there was no longer any basis for maintaining the national armament order.

“Norwegian police are basically unarmed in daily service, with firearms being stored in police vehicles, and police can be armed in connection with specific missions when needed. In that sense, we are now moving to a normal situation,” Tone Vangen, emergency preparedness director for the police, said in a statement.

The police had been armed since last Wednesday following the incident in Kongsberg where Danish citizen Espen Andersen Bråthen killed five with an undisclosed sharp object and shot at police with a bow and arrow.

During police questioning, Bråthen confessed to the killings and to wounding three others.

Police said earlier this week that the victims were chosen at random. The Danish citizen was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation, which is necessary to determine whether Bråthen can be held legally responsible for his actions.

The 37-year-old had previously announced publicly that he had converted to Islam and police initially reported that there had been fears of radicalisation.

But police later said that mental illness was to be considered the primary motive for the attack.

“As far as motive is concerned, illness remains the main hypothesis. And as far as conversion to Islam is concerned, this hypothesis is weakened,” police inspector Per Thomas Omholt said to reporters earlier this week.

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