Norway paid this Sunday an emotional tribute to the victims of the bloody shooting that occurred early Saturday morning outside three bars in the center of Oslo, the capital, which left two dead and 21 wounded and forced the cancellation of the Lgtbiq+ pride march.
“Bullets can’t kill love,” he declared the head of the Norwegian Protestant Church, Olav Fykse Tveitduring a ceremony in honor of the deceased offered in the cathedral of Oslo.
The altar of the church was decorated with the colors of the rainbow and flowers, and from the mass Crown Princess Mette-Marit participated, although without her husband Prince Haakon, sick with coronavirus.
“Oslo is in mourning and the entire country is shocked by the attack, which has particularly hit gay people who had gathered to celebrate Pride,” the Church said in a statement on Saturday.
The attacker was arrested, and the police and intelligence services opened an investigation for an “Islamist terrorist act”. However, it is still unknown if the attack was for ideological or religious reasons or if it is a hate crime against the homosexual community or the act of an unbalanced person. Ten of the injured suffered serious injuries.
This Sunday, a person in charge of the Oslo police, Borge Enoksen, stressed in a press conference that “it could be a combination” of reasons, but that “it’s too early to draw conclusions”reported the AFP news agency.
The alleged perpetrator of the shooting He is a 42-year-old Norwegian of Iranian origin.known to the internal intelligence services, also in charge of anti-terrorism, and identified by the local media as Zaniar Matapour.
The intelligence services specified that the man had been on the radar since 2015 due to his radicalization and his membership in an extremist Islamist network. Also, had been convicted of lesser crimes and the authorities point to a fragile state of mental health.
The police ordered that he be placed under observation to help clarify the question of his criminal responsibility. The shooting took place outside a pub, at a time of strong influx due to the gay pride celebrations.
Later, the attacker continued shooting in front of a neighboring gay club, in the heart of the Norwegian capital, which was full of people.
Two men between the ages of 50 and 60 were killed and 21 others were injured.
The alleged perpetrator was arrested 20 minutes after the start of the shooting and about five minutes after the first warnings to the police, who deployed reinforcements in the capital and the intelligence services raised the threat level, describing the situation as “extraordinary”.
After the attack, the Lgtbiq+ Pride march, which was to be held this Saturday afternoon in Osloafter three years of suspension due to the pandemic, it was annulled, and as a show of solidarity, rainbow flags were placed near the site of the attack, which was cordoned off.
However, the mayor of Oslo, Raymond Johansen, promised that it would take place at a later date and thousands of people gathered for a spontaneous march.
Generally peaceful, Norway was the scene on July 22, 2011 of an attack by neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in a bomb attack on the government headquarters in Oslo. and a shooting at a Labor Party youth meeting on the island of Utoya.
