Suspect held as Oslo police detonate ‘bomb-like device’

A police officer stands guard near an area that was cordened off in central Oslo following the discovery of a “bomb-like device” on Saturday. (AFP)

OSLO: Norwegian police set off a controlled explosion of a “bomb-like device” in central Oslo early on Sunday and were holding a suspect in custody in an investigation led by security police.
A Reuters reporter described a loud bang shortly after Oslo’s bomb squad arrived with a remote-controlled robot once the area was cordoned off by police late on Saturday night.
“The noise from the blast was louder than our explosives themselves would cause,” a police spokesman said, adding that further investigation was needed to find out if the device had contained explosives.
The device, about 30 cm across, had appeared to be capable of causing only a limited amount of damage. Forensics experts will examine fragments to figure out what it was.
Norwegian police detained a suspect but declined to give information about his identity. Norway’s police security service, PST, said in a tweet it had taken over the investigation from local police.
“We are in a very early phase of the investigation,” said Martin Bernsen, PST spokesman.
Police took away cordons put up on Saturday night in the Groenland area and residents resumed normal Sunday activities, with shops and cafes open. There was no sign of police at the site.
The Groenland area, a multi-ethnic neighborhood that is home to popular bars and restaurants, several mosques, and the city’s main police station. The police station is less than a kilometer away from where the device was found.
In 2011, right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik set off a car bomb in Oslo that killed eight people and destroyed Norway’s government headquarters, before going on a shooting rampage that killed 69 people at nearby Utoeya island.