Suspect in fatal bow-and-arrow attack had been flagged for radicalization

Police said on Thursday that a suspect believed to be involved in a bow-and-arrow attack that left five people dead is a Danish man who had converted to Islam and had been previously flagged for radicalization.

“There earlier had been worries of the man having been radicalized,” Police chief Ole B. Saeverud said on Thursday, according to The Associated Press. Saeverud did not explain what he meant by radicalized, and he said that authorities are still determining what the motive was behind the attack.

Authorities are also determining whether the attack at several locations in the town of Kongsberg southwest of Oslo was an act of terrorism.

The attack, which took place after 6 p.m. local time, is considered to be the deadliest mass killing in Norway since a deadly 2011 attack when far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people. 

Authorities believe that the suspect only started carrying out his attack once police spotted him, according to Reuters. Officials are still determining if any other weapons were involved in the attack.

“This is unreal. But the reality is that five people have been killed, many are injured and many are in shock,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, who had just been appointed in Norway, said in an interview to NRK, a Norwegian broadcaster, according to the AP.