Two killed in mass shooting in Norway; more than a dozen hurt

Two people were killed and more than a dozen injured early Saturday in a mass shooting in Oslo, Norwegian police said, as the city was gearing up for an annual Pride parade.

The shooting happened outside a bar in the downtown area of the Norwegian capital, police said.

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A suspect was arrested and police don't believe any other people were involved, police spokesman Tore Barstad said.

Barstad said the motive was not immediately known and that it wasn’t clear whether the shooting had any connection to the Pride parade that was to be held Saturday in Oslo.

Security forces stand at the site of a shooting in central Oslo, Norway. Reuters

"Police are in contact with the organizers of the Pride event this Saturday. There will be a continuous assessment of what measures police should take to protect that event and whether this incident has a connection to Pride at all," Barstad told reporters.

Olav Roenneberg, a journalist from Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, said he witnessed the shooting.

"I saw a man arrive at the site with a bag. He picked up a weapon and started shooting,” Roenneberg told NRK. "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 experienced one of the worst mass shootings in Europe in 2011 when a right-wing extremist killed 69 people on the island of Utoya after setting off a bomb in Oslo that left eight dead.

Associated Press