‘Are you crazy? Why should I blow myself up?’

The 19-year-old Oslo woman hunted by international police on suspicion of planning a suicide attack has vigorously denied any such plans, telling Norway’s TV2 that she had been planning to come back to Norway.

Published: 20 February 2015 07:40 CET

'Are you crazy? Why should I blow myself up?'

The woman's face on TV2 yesterday: Screen grab from TV2

“Are you crazy?” she told reporters asked her whether she was planning an attack. “I am a Muslim. Islam does not allow it.”

She told reporters that she was staying in Turkey with her new husband and studying Arabic, and had been planning to return to Norway.

“It is so ridiculous. Why should I blow myself up?” she told reporters. “I’m sorry, but I just had to laugh when I heard that.”

Norway’s Police Security Service (PST) has put out an ‘orange notice’ about the woman on Interpol, the organisation facilitating international police cooperation, saying it had received a tip-off she might be planning an attack.

“I'm married. I'm not in Norway and I do not intend to carry any kind of terrorist attacks,” she told TV2. “I have not been in Syria and that is what is so funny. Syria and blow myself up… It's just nonsense.”

She claimed that she was the victim of rumours spread by people back in Oslo who wanted to cause problems for her.

Friends of the woman largely backed up her claims.

“She changed for around two years ago. She went from liking to party with friends to practicing Islam more and more,” one friend told TV2. “But I've never heard that she wanted to hurt anyone. She is a very nice girl: kind and always positive. I do not think that she is in Syria.”