Norway police: Bow and arrow attacker is Muslim convert known to authorities

(Update 1: Adds police security service statement on terror angle)

Copenhagen, Oct 14 (EFE).- A man accused of the murder of five people in a bow and arrow rampage in the Norwegian town of Kongsberg is a convert to Islam and was previously reported to the authorities amid concerns he had become radicalized, police said Thursday.

Four women and a man aged between 50 and 70 were killed in the attack on Wednesday night, in which the assailant used a bow and arrows, police said. Two others, including an off-duty police officer, were hospitalized.

Local media reported that the assailant had used other weapons besides the bow and arrow.

Ole B. Sæverud, local police chief for Norway’s southeast district, told a press conference Thursday that the accused was a convert to Islam and that police had previously received reports raising concerns about his possible radicalization.

He added that those reports had been followed up, and that no further reports on the matter were filed this year, according to declarations cited by Norwegian news agency NRK.

The Norwegian Police Security Service later said in a statement that the attack pointed to an act of terror but that the investigation being carried out by the regional police would ultimately conclude the suspect’s motivations.

The accused, 37, is a Danish national and resident of Kongsberg, which lies some 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) southwest of Oslo.

Police attorney Ann Irén Svane Mathiassen told NRK that the accused was cooperating in his interrogation and had admitted to the preliminary charges. EFE

alc/jt/ch