Shootout at the NAV Office

An incident involving firearms occurred today at a welfare office in a culturally enriched neighborhood of Oslo. Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has translated an article about the breaking news, and includes this note:

This incident just occurred in Tøyen, an immigrant neighbourhood in the downtown region of Oslo. According to a slightly more recent article in Dagbladet (which I haven’t had time to translate) a female eyewitness claims that the man is in his 60s and of foreign heritage. She says that he was arguing loudly with a guard and another man before he fired the shots.

The human torch outside the courthouse a couple of weeks ago had apparently experienced some ‘problems’ with NAV, the social services agency. My bet is that this guy had run into similar difficulties getting his hands on some ‘welfare money’ and that this caused him to take this step.

According to the SSB (statistics bureau), if current trends continue, by 2020 the expenses of the government will be higher than their revenues, which mean that welfare reforms will have to be introduced. And that means no more free handouts for Hassan and Muhammad…

Residents of Oslo: be prepared for more of this in the years to come.

The translated article from VG.no:

Fired shots inside the NAV office in Tøyen

(VG Nett) A man has been arrested after he allegedly entered the NAV office in Tøyen, and fired shots into the ceiling.

Eyewitnesses claim that the gunman took a female hostage when he first entered the building and then made his way further into the premise. The Oslo police have confirmed that they arrested a man at 1.59 pm, but that they are still performing a search of the area.

“It was packed inside the NAV building in Tøyen, when we heard a loud noise. I don’t know what it was, whether it was shot or something else. It was complete chaos, everyone panicked. People were running for cover,” one eyewitness says.

Another eyewitness says that she has been informed that the shot was fired into the ceiling.

The armed police response unit has arrived, another person at the scene says.

“A man came out of the building and told us that there was a man with a gun inside the NAV building. The armed man apparently dragged a woman into the elevator on the first floor. Police have now cordoned off the entire Tøyen centre.”

“There are several armed police officers here at the moment. Several witnesses have informed me that several shots were fired into the ceiling inside the NAV building in Tøyen centre,” freelance photographer Joakim Fjeld tells VG Nett.

“As I was leaving the Co-op store two police officers with shields asked us to leave the area. There were four or five police officers at the entrance to the underground (subway) station. They were armed and were in the process of loading their weapons. They also had a dog with them. There was also an armoured vehicle parked outside with approximately ten police officers inside,” Lana Karasniqi (24) tells VG Nett.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.