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Norway: 2nd suspect sought in Pride festival shootings

September 23, 2022 GMT

FILE - A Norwegian national flag flutters over flowers and rainbow flags that are placed at the scene of a shooting in central of Oslo, Norway, on June 26, 2022. A Norwegian citizen in his 40s is being sought after for his role in the deadly shooting in June in Oslo’s nightlife district during the capital’s annual LGBTQ Pride festival, police said Friday Sept. 23, 2022. Another suspect has already been arrested. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Authorities in Norway are seeking a second suspect in a deadly shooting attack during the Norwegian capital’s annual LGBTQ Pride festival, police said Friday.

A 42-year-old Norwegian citizen originally from Iran was arrested after the June shootings in Oslo’s nightlife district that killed two people and wounded more than 20. A second Norwegian man in his 40s now is being sought for a suspected role in the attack, police said.

“The hypothesis that the attack was carried out with terrorist intent has been strengthened,” prosecutor Børge Enoksen said during a press conference.

The wanted man was well-known to police and currently outside Norway, but “we do not want to comment on which country the person is currently in,” Enoksen said. Norwegian broadcaster TV2 reported it was Pakistan.

Norwegian media identified the man as a 44-year-old who allegedly posted online statements about killing gay people. The media reports said he knew Zaniar Matapour, the main suspect behind the June 25 attack that the Norwegian Police Security Service has called an “Islamist terror act.”

Matapour who according to Norwegian media arrived in Norway with his family from a Kurdish part of Iran in the 1990s, faces preliminary charges of murder and attempted murder.