Oslo - One person was injured during an
armed attack at a mosque in Norway on Saturday, police said,
adding that members of the congregation had overpowered the
gunman and stopped the shooting.
An older man sustained light injuries, police told a news
conference, but said it was too early to say if the wounds were
caused by the gunshots or sustained during the attempt to
restrain the gunman.
An initial statement by the police had said one person was
shot in the attack.
The suspected attacker at the al-Noor Islamic Centre near
the country's capital was described as "a young white man" who
appeared to have acted alone, the police added.
"He is around 20 years old, a Norwegian citizen from the
area," assistant chief of police Rune Skjold told Reuters.
"The man carried two shotgun-like weapons and a pistol. He
broke through a glass door and fired shots," mosque director
Irfan Mushtaq told TV2.
The shooter, who wore body armour and a helmet, was
overpowered by members of the mosque before police arrived,
Mushtaq added.
Only three people were present in the mosque at the time of
the attack, preparing for Sunday's celebration of the
Eid-al-Adha festival, which up to 1,000 people had been expected
to attend, mosque spokesman Waheed Ahmed told Reuters.
The mosque earlier this year implemented extra security
measures following the massacre of more than 50 people at two
New Zealand mosques by a suspected right-wing extremist.
In 2011, anti-Muslim neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik
massacred 77 people in Norway's worst peacetime atrocity, the
majority of them teenagers at a youth camp.