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First Mosque Attack in Norway After 34 Years

The attack on al-Noor Islamic Center is the first attack on a mosque in Norway since 1985.

A young man in his 20s armed with multiple weapons opened fire in a mosque in Bærum near Oslo on Saturday. One person was injured before the attacker was overpowered by a 75-year-old worshiper. Hours after the attack, the body of a young woman related to the attacker was found in a house.

Police confirms that the shooter known to police, said to have posted praise for New Zealand killer online before opening fire on house of worship.

The man charged with murder and attempted murder, confirms the man’s defender, Unni Fries in an SMS to NRK.

“A brief questioning has been conducted. That’s all I want to say now, writes the defender.

How it happened?

Police were notified at 4:07 pm Saturday afternoon that shots were fired inside the Al-Noor Islamic Center in Bærum.

“When we got there, there was a person who was overpowered by those on the scene,” Oslo Police Chief Rune Skjold said at a press conference on Saturday night.

Skjold says that the man is a Norwegian citizen with Norwegian background who lives in the area”, according to NRK. He states that he is a man in his 20s.

The first attacks since 1989

On July 14, 1985, a bomb went off in the Nor mosque at Frogner in Oslo. No one was killed in the attack, but one woman was injured. That time, police had arrested a 19-year-old man shortly after the explosion.

It was the last time a mosque was attacked in Norway, but the police have repeatedly raised security around mosques. Especially after the terrorist attacks against a mosque in Christchurch in New Zealand in March, the police was on alert.

Islamic Council Norway believes the attacks against the mosque in Bærum is a result of Muslim hate and believes the authorities are not taking the developments seriously, they wrote in a press release.

Norway experienced the worst-ever attacks by a right-wing extremist on 22 July 2011, when 77 people, mostly teenagers, were killed by Anders Behring Breivik. The terrorist in the Christchurch attacks had expressed in his hate-filled manifesto that he was influenced by far-right ideologues including Breivik.

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