Police identified the attacker as Espen Andersen Braathen, a 37-year-old Danish citizen, who was arrested Wednesday night. They said he used the bow and arrow and possibly other weapons to randomly target people at a supermarket and other locations in Kongsberg, a town of about 26,000 where he lived, before he was seized by police on the street.
Police said they believe he acted alone.
“The whole act appears to be an act of terror,” said Hans Sverre Sjoevold, head of Norway’s domestic intelligence service, known as the PST.
”We do not know what the motivation of the perpetrator is,” Sjoevold said in English. “We have to wait for the outcome of the investigation.”
He said the suspect was known earlier by the PST, but he declined to elaborate.
Regional Police Chief Ole B. Saeverud described the man as being known as a Muslim convert and said there “earlier had been worries of the man having been radicalized,” but he did not elaborate or say why he was previously flagged or authorities did in response.