On the day of the annual Pride Parade in Oslo, the capital of Norway, a 42-year-old man walked into a gay bar with an automatic gun and killed two people while injuring 21 people. The man was arrested after being tackled by police, and was identified as a Norwegian citizen of Iranian origin Islamist with a mental illness history, named Zaniar Matapour.
A witness of the shooting says, “I saw a man arrive at the site with a bag. He picked up a weapon and started shooting. First I thought it was an air gun. Then the glass of the bar next door was shattered and I understood I had to run for cover.”
Norway has a low crime rate, but has experienced some major attacks in the past decade. In 2011, a mass shooting occurred when an extremist detonated a car bomb in Oslo before carrying out a mass shooting at a camp for teens. In 2021, a man with a bow and arrow killed five people at a grocery store and pleaded guilty at the start of his trial.
The shooting led to the cancellation of the Oslo Pride parade. Mourners gathered rainbow balloons, flowers, flags, and banners in a pile to offer sincere condolences to the lives lost on Saturday. Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, Prince Magnus, the prime minister, and other officials joined together to express great sorrow and laid red and white roses near the London Pub, the bar where the shooting took place.
“Today’s celebrations were supposed to mark – 50 years since homosexuality no longer got criminalized in Norway … a little over an hour ago there was a shooting outside of a famous gay bar in Oslo…this is why we need pride,” says a Twitter user named Ninokoo1.
Even though the Pride Parade was cancelled due to the advice of police, thousands of people marched in the center of Oslo holding Pride flags and chanting: “We’re here, we’re queer, we won’t disappear.”
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61941172
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/two-dead-several-wounded-norway-nightclub-shooting-police-say-2022-06-25/
https://www.kcra.com/article/norway-mass-shooting-june-25-2022/40414416#
https://kfor.com/news/disturbing-video-man-goes-on-killing-spree-with-bow-and-arrow-and-knives/
A witness of the shooting says, “I saw a man arrive at the site with a bag. He picked up a weapon and started shooting. First I thought it was an air gun. Then the glass of the bar next door was shattered and I understood I had to run for cover.”
Norway has a low crime rate, but has experienced some major attacks in the past decade. In 2011, a mass shooting occurred when an extremist detonated a car bomb in Oslo before carrying out a mass shooting at a camp for teens. In 2021, a man with a bow and arrow killed five people at a grocery store and pleaded guilty at the start of his trial.
The shooting led to the cancellation of the Oslo Pride parade. Mourners gathered rainbow balloons, flowers, flags, and banners in a pile to offer sincere condolences to the lives lost on Saturday. Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, Prince Magnus, the prime minister, and other officials joined together to express great sorrow and laid red and white roses near the London Pub, the bar where the shooting took place.
“Today’s celebrations were supposed to mark – 50 years since homosexuality no longer got criminalized in Norway … a little over an hour ago there was a shooting outside of a famous gay bar in Oslo…this is why we need pride,” says a Twitter user named Ninokoo1.
Even though the Pride Parade was cancelled due to the advice of police, thousands of people marched in the center of Oslo holding Pride flags and chanting: “We’re here, we’re queer, we won’t disappear.”
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61941172
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/two-dead-several-wounded-norway-nightclub-shooting-police-say-2022-06-25/
https://www.kcra.com/article/norway-mass-shooting-june-25-2022/40414416#
https://kfor.com/news/disturbing-video-man-goes-on-killing-spree-with-bow-and-arrow-and-knives/
