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Four arrested over Oslo shooting incidents

A fourth person was arrested on Friday in connection with two separate shooting episodes in Oslo over the past week.

Published: 28 July 2017 16:41 CEST

Four arrested over Oslo shooting incidents

Police on the scene of the Majorstua shooting on Thursday. Photo: Jon Olav Nesvold / NTB scanpix

On Saturday, one man was seriously injured in a shooting episode in Oslo’s Grünerløkka district.

Nobody had been arrested in that case until a new shooting incident occured on Thursday, when shots were fired at an address in Oslo’s affluent Majorstua neighbourhood at around 8am.

Less than two hours after the Majorstua episode, another shooting was reported in the Etterstad area on the other end of the city.

Police discovered that the two men who were found with gun wounds in Etterstad had also been involved in the Majorstua incident.

Officers suspected that the Saturday shooting and the two Thursday incidents were related and by Friday, a total of four men had been arrested.

All involved parties are between the ages of 25 and 35 and were described by Oslo Police spokesman Audun Kristiansen as being “involved in serious crime”.

“It is too early to say anything concrete but we are trying to determine the reason [for the shootings],” Kristiansen told VG.

Despite the three daytime shootings in a span of five days, Kristiansen said Oslo residents have no reason to be worried. He stressed that none of the shootings took place in public spaces and said that police will not be taking any additional public safety measures.

“We are doing preventive work and carrying out patrols, and we are taking very serious the fact that people are walking around with weapons. We have also increased the penalties for carrying loaded weapons and knives in public places, and that seems to be having a preventive effect,” Kristiansen said.

Potential bankruptcy threatens bus services in Oslo

Unibuss, which is wholly owned by Oslo Municipality, is in danger of going bust due to large losses, unpaid bills, and fines from public transport firm Ruter for issues with its electric bus fleet this winter.

Oslo City Council will hold an emergency meeting headed up by transport councilor Marit Vea on Wednesday, where she will be grilled on how the council will avert a collapse in the city’s public transport network should Unibuss go bankrupt.

Unibuss is comprised of four smaller companies that operate bus routes in Oslo on behalf of Ruter. The company has just over 370 buses in operation and covers around 60 to 70 percent of the routes in Oslo and the neighboring municipality of Bærum.

Oslo’s fleet of electric busses struggled especially with snow and cold temperatures this winter, which caused frequent chaos across the capital’s public transport network.

Snow, ice, range and charging issues for the busses lead to vehicle shortages which caused mass delays and cancellations several times over the winter.

Ruter, which is also part owned by Oslo municipality, believes that the financial problems facing Unibuss mean the company could be forced to file for bankruptcy or undergo a major restructuring, according to a memo obtained by publication Teknisk Ukeblad.

It has previously told public broadcaster that it was working on a plan in case Unibuss goes bankrupt.

“There is no doubt that the first days of such a scenario will be very demanding for the residents of Oslo and parts of Akershus,” Ruter’s communications director Elisabeth Skarsbø Moen told public broadcaster NRK.

“First and foremost, we are working to find a solution together with Unibuss that does not affect Ruter’s customers,” she said.

“But as those responsible for public transport, we have both a plan and an emergency organization ready to also handle a bankruptcy,” Skarsbø Moen added.

Should Unibuss go bankrupt, its buses would become part of the bankruptcy estate and if such an event were to occur while passengers were in transit, all passengers would need to disembark at the next stop so the buses can be transported to the depot.

Ruter said it had an eye on the market to try and see what could be available in terms of extra buses and equipment.

It said that its priority would be to ensure that school transport, and that healthcare workers could get to work, in the event of a sudden lack of buses.

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