Norway on Sunday held a touching moment of silence near a gay bar in the center of the capital, Oslo, for the victims of the bloody shooting that forced them to cancel an LGBTQIA+ pride parade earlier on Saturday.
Oslo Cathedral held a service in honor of the dead the day after the attack, which left two dead and 21 injured. The altar is decorated with rainbow colors and flowers.
“Bullets cannot kill love,” said Olav Fykse Tveit, head of the Norwegian Protestant church. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Princess Mette-Marit were present at the ceremony, even without their husbands, Prince Haakon, who contracted Kovid-19.
The exact reasons for the suspect’s shooting are not yet known, but authorities have described him as an Islamist with a fragile mental health condition.
“Oslo is in mourning and the whole country is in shock, especially at the attack that hit homosexuals gathered to celebrate the Pride Parade,” the church said in a statement on Saturday.
The shooting took place around 01:00 (8:00 on Friday) outside a pub and an LGBT club (London Pub) at a time when there was a large crowd due to the Gay Pride festivities.
While two people aged between 50 and 60 lost their lives, 21 people were injured, 10 of them seriously.
Norwegian of Iranian descent
Due to the epidemic, the LGBTQIA+ Pride Parade, scheduled for the first time in three years on Saturday afternoon in Oslo, was canceled on the advice of the police. But Oslo Mayor Raymond Johansen promised that this would happen at a later date, and thousands of people gathered for a spontaneous march.
According to Oslo police, the suspect in the attack is a 42-year-old Norwegian man of Iranian descent, identified by local media as Zaniar Matapour. Norwegian intelligence services said on Saturday that the man had been on their radar since 2015 for his radicalization and involvement in an Islamic extremist network.
In addition, he was convicted of petty crimes and authorities point to a delicate mental health condition.
Police ordered that he be put on probation to help clarify the issue of his criminal liability. However, investigators still do not know whether the attack was carried out for ideological or religious reasons, whether it was a hate crime against the gay community or an act of a deranged person.
“It could be a combination,” Oslo police official Børge Enoksen said at a news conference on Sunday. “It’s too early to draw conclusions,” he added.
The drama shocked the generally peaceful country, which experienced a dark day in July 2011 when a far-right extremist killed 77 people in a bomb attack in Oslo and set fire to a Labor Party youth rally on the island of Utoya.
Police deployed reinforcements in the capital, and intelligence services described the situation as “extraordinary”, raising the threat level.
As a token of solidarity, rainbow flags and flower bouquets were placed near the cordoned off attack area.
“It’s important to convey our condolences and say that love is love and is the same for everyone, everyone should have the right to live their life the way they want,” said Kristin Wenstad, a cook who was at the scene of the tragedy. on the verge of tears. .
source: Noticias
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