Oslo - A South Sudanese man suspected of hijacking a bus and killing three people in Norway was a failed asylum seeker who was about to be deported, police said on Tuesday.
The 30-year-old man, who is being treated for knife wounds in hospital, was due to fly to Oslo on Tuesday before leaving the country, police officer Aage Loeseth told AFP.
The man, whose name has not been disclosed, is suspected of stabbing to death two men in their 50s, one of whom was the bus driver, and a 19-year-old woman.
He was living in a reception centre for asylum seekers in Aardal, a small town in western Norway near the scene of the attack.
The deputy director of the organisation managing the reception centre, Tor Brekke, told AFP the attack had been “completely unexpected”.
“There was nothing to indicate any imbalance, or that he could do this,” he said.
The suspect arrived in Norway in April and had been living in the Aardal centre since August 26.
His bid for asylum was dismissed because he had made an earlier application in Spain, where he was to be sent.
The attacker was overpowered by firefighters who rushed to the scene of what they initially believed was a traffic accident, police said.
The long-distance bus was on the route between the mountainous Valdres region, a popular area for skiing, and the Norwegian capital Oslo.
The nearest police station was about 89 kilometres from the deadly attack and the first officers arrived at the scene about an hour after the alert was given.
A witness said he rushed to help people inside the bus after spotting it by the side of the road, believing there had been an accident.
“It was impossible to open the doors. Then we saw a dark-skinned person inside the bus. At first, we thought he was trying to get out but then saw he was moving around with a knife, and we realised that the situation was quite different,” the witness told TV2 Nyhetskanalen.
In 2003, on the same route between Valdres and Oslo, an Ethiopian killed the driver of a bus after murdering an asylum seeker in a local shelter.
He was sentenced to treatment in a psychiatric hospital.
Sapa-AFP