Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

RAPE

Police hunt suspects in Bergen group rape

Police in Bergen are searching for three men in connection with the group rape of a woman in her early twenties in the centre of the city in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Published: 20 August 2012 17:03 CEST

Police hunt suspects in Bergen group rape

Bergen theatre Den National Scene (File photo: Svein-Magne Tunli)

The woman told police she ran into the three men at the main square after she had left a student party.

They walked with her to the national theatre, where she says they raped her, newspaper Bergens Tidende reports.

“The perpetrators are Norwegian and spoke with Bergen and Østlandet dialects,” police investigator Rigmor Isehaug told the newspaper.

Police are examining surveillance footage they believe may help them identify the men.

The woman went to a rape crisis centre shortly after the alleged attack, enabling police to secure biological evidence.

Police said the woman was wearing a party costume, without providing details about its appearance.

The rape took place between 3.15am and 4am on Sunday. Police are asking for assistance from anyone who believes they may have seen the group.

Rental prices in Norway's biggest cities continue to rise

A sharp increase in rent prices in Norway continued throughout the third quarter, figures from Real Estate Norway (Eiendom Norge) released on Tuesday show.

“Real Estate Norway’s rental housing price statistics show a historically strong rise in rental housing prices in Norway in the third quarter,” Henning Lauridsen, CEO of Real Estate Norway, stated in a report on the latest figures.

Growth was most robust in Stavanger and Oslo, according to Real Estate Norway.

“The strong growth in rental prices we have seen in the wake of the pandemic continued in the third quarter, and it is particularly in the Stavanger region and in Oslo that the growth in rental prices is strong,” Lauridsen said.

Stavanger and nearby Sandnes saw the largest price increases, with the cost of renting there increasing by 4.7 percent during the third quarter. During the same period, rents in Oslo increased by 2.5 percent, while a marginal 0.3 percent rise was recorded in Trondheim.

While the cost of renting in Norway’s four largest cities overall increased by 2 percent, rental prices in Bergen declined. There, rents fell by 2.5 percent in the third quarter.

Lauridsen said that the increase in rental prices was likely to continue due to several factors. High inflation, interest rates, increased taxes on rental properties and a low supply of homes on the market all contributed to increasing rents.

However, he did note that the supply of rental homes on the market had increased in Trondheim and Oslo since the summer.

Lauridsen said that the least well-off financially were being hit hardest by rent rises. Previously, the Norwegian government has informed The Local that it will not introduce a temporary cap on rent increases.

READ MORE: Norway’s government rules out a temporary rent cap

Url copied to clipboard!