Syrian knifeman stabs at least three people including his wife before being arrested in Norway 

A knifeman from Syria was arrested in Norway after at least three people were stabbed with a sharp object – including his own wife, leaving one critically injured, police said.

The attack, which took place Friday morning in the village of Nore, 60 miles west of Oslo, had previously been labelled as ‘random’.

But police later confirmed that it involved a ‘family relationship’, with one of the victims being the attacker’s estranged wife.

‘This is a family from Syria, and the perpetrator and one of the injured are married,’ police inspector Odd Skei Kostveit said in a statement.

Police said the suspect was a man who had received a restraining order in December following an investigation of domestic violence.

The suspect, who also was injured, was held on suspicion of ‘grievous bodily harm,’ police said.

A police vehicle is parked behind a barrier tape on the side of the road, following attacks, in Nore, Numedal region, Norway today

A Syrian knifeman was arrested in Norway after at least three people were stabbed with a sharp object – including his own wife, leaving one critically injured, police said

The attack occurred in a small town just 50 miles from Kongsberg, the scene of a knife and bow and arrow attack last October

Two people were flown to a nearby hospital by helicopter, police said.

Nore, a village in the Numedal valley, is located 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of Oslo, Norway’s capital.

It was not immediately clear where in the village the attack took place. Norwegian media said a bus driver and students from a local school overpowered the suspect.

The school confirmed the incident on its website and said that its crisis management team was assisting the police and following up with the school’s students and staff.

Police spokesman Tor Richard Jansen confirmed that civilians overpowered the alleged assailant and ‘handed him over to firefighters’ who arrived before the police.

William Scott, who was in the area delivering goods, told the VG newspaper he saw an injured woman lying on the ground.

The attack, which took place Friday morning in the village of Nore, which had previously been labelled as ‘random’. But police later confirmed that it involved a ‘family relationship’, with one of the victims being the attacker’s estranged wife

‘At first I thought it was a collision because there was a large pool of blood on the ground,’ he said.

Norwegian broadcaster TV2 cited a witness saying bleeding victims came running from behind a convenience store. Pools of blood were seen on the asphalt, TV2 said.

‘Such acts of violence are serious and despairing,’ Norwegian Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl said in a statement.

The village which is surrounded by mountains, sits 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Kongsberg, where five people were fatally stabbed and four wounded in October when Espen Andersen Brathen attacked strangers with a bow and arrow and knives.

Andersen Brathen pleaded guilty at the start of his trial Wednesday. He also faces 11 counts of attempted murder for the attack in Kongsberg, a former mining town of 26,000 people.

The Muslim convert, who was listed by Norwegian security services as a person of concern as early as 2015, hacked his victims to death with a hunting knife after unleashing a torrent of arrows at innocent bystanders in a Co-Op Extra supermarket. 

CCTV footage, released by police as Bråthen’s trial began, showed how the killer strode into the store brandishing a bow with a quiver of deadly arrows and a huge hunting knife sheathed on his belt.

Espen Andersen Bråthen, 38, went on trial yesterday for the murder of five people and attempted murder of 11 more on October 13, 2021 

Dressed in khaki trousers and a plain white vest, the killer loaded his arrows and let them fly at terrified civilians with no hesitation

Dressed in khaki trousers and a plain white vest, the killer loaded his arrows and let them fly at terrified civilians with no hesitation. 

The 38-year-old pleaded guilty before a judge yesterday morning as the court heard how he stalked the streets of Kongsberg with dozens of arrows before stabbing five people aged 52-78, including four women, to death.