Norway’s domestic intelligence agency PST has joined police in investigating two threats against the Norwegian Parliament on Wednesday. It remained unclear who was behind the first one, while police said they gained “control” over the sender of the second threat after just a few hours.
The two threats led to a temporary closure of Parliament and cordoned off the immediate area outside the historic building in the heart of downtown Oslo. It’s since emerged that the parliment’s own security forces had uncovered an anonymous cryptic threat on social media the night before that they had passed on to police, along with a subsequent email containing a bomb threat.
Newspaper Aftenposten reported that the first threat amounted to a Norwegian version of a warning originally posted on the discussion forum 4chan before a school shooting in the US in 2015: “Some of you guys are alright, don’t go to school tomorrow.” In the Norwegian version published on 4chan Tuesday night, it warned against going to the Parliament building (Stortinget) at 10am on Wednesday.
Both threats (the 4chan post and the email) were forwarded to police, who are now working with PST in an effort to track down the author of the first one. When police became aware of the bomb threat that also had ticked in to Parliament, the Parliament was closed and cordoned off at around 10am, with no one allowed in or out. Police quickly tracked down the person who sent the email, and believe the first threat was lodged by someone else. They declined further comment on the investigation now underway.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
