Norwegian police end emergency carrying of arms
The temporary arming of all police in Norway, ordered after an attack in Kongsberg left five dead, ended on Friday morning.
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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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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