Suspected ‘ terrorist’ arrested over deadly Oslo attack

GBNews24 Desk//

Norwegian police have arrested a man suspected of ‘Islamist terrorism’ after two people were killed and 21 wounded in shootings near a gay bar in Oslo on Saturday, causing the city’s Pride march to be cancelled, reports AFP.

But despite the official march being called off, thousands spontaneously gathered to march through the Norwegian capital in a display of unity also seen at Pride marches across Europe.

The suspect, who was already known to security services, was arrested quickly after the shooting started around 1:00am in central Oslo.

Norway’s domestic intelligence service PST, which is responsible for counter-terrorism, said it was treating the attack as ‘an act of Islamist terrorism’.

The suspect ‘has a long history of violence and threats’, PST’s chief Roger Berg said.

The suspect had been on the PST’s radar ‘since 2015 in connection with concerns about his radicalisation’ and membership ‘in an Islamist extremist network’, Berg told a news conference.

Intelligence services spoke to the suspect last month, but did not consider him to have ‘violent intentions’, Berg said.

He added that the PST was also aware the suspect had ‘difficulties with his mental health’.

The suspect’s lawyer, John Christian Elden, told Norwegian news agency NTB he expected his client to be put under ‘judicial observation’ to determine his mental state, as is usually done in such cases.

The suspect has so far refused to be interviewed by investigators.

Police had earlier said the suspect was a 42-year-old Norwegian man of Iranian descent.

Norwegian media named him as Zaniar Matapour, describing him as a father of Iranian Kurdish origin who arrived in Norway as a child.