Copenhagen: A man armed with a bow and arrow killed at least five people and injured two others in Norway's Kongsberg town, some 82 km southwest of the capital city of Oslo, police said.
The attacker is said to have launched the assault inside a Coop Extra supermarket on Kongsberg's west side, as per a BBC report. Among the two injured in the Wednesday evening attack was a police officer in civilian clothes, reports Xinhua news agency. A spokesperson for the chain said that none of their staff were physically injured.
Both the injured are currently in hospital, confirmed Oyvind Aas, Police Chief in the South-East police district, to the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) late Wednesday night.
"It was at around 6.13 pm, local time before the police received several messages that there was a person who moved around with a weapon and fired at people with a bow and arrows," Aas said at a press conference.
According to the police chief, the suspected attacker, a 37-year-old Danish man, had been arrested in the same area at around 6.40 pm. There was a confrontation between the police and the suspect who tried to run away before he was arrested. "Based on the information we have currently, there is one person, a male, who has performed these actions alone. It is natural to consider whether it is an act of terrorism, but it is too early to come to any conclusion," said Aas. Officers are also investigating whether the attacker used other weapons during the incident, Chief Aas told reporters.
According to the police chief, the suspected attacker, a 37-year-old Danish man, had been arrested in the same area at around 6.40 pm. There was a confrontation between the police and the suspect who tried to run away before he was arrested
Police are currently unable to determine whether the incident was a terrorist motivated attack and continue to maintain a presence in the area, which remains cordoned off. "These crime scenes are secured by the police, and then also searched for more victims and investigated by forensic technicians. We are questioning witnesses to the incidents to get as good a picture as possible of what happened here tonight," Aas said.
The police directorate has now ordered all officers across the country to carry firearms as an extra precaution. Usually police in the country are not armed. "The police have no indication so far that there is a change in the national threat level," the directorate said in a statement (in Norwegian). In a statement, Prime Minister Erna Solberg said reports of the incident had been "horrifying".
