Artists and pensioners named among victims of Norway attacker

‘It takes a few minutes to drive across town. So half an hour is too long to stop a man on a killing spree’

A POTTER, an artist, a woman in her 50s and two pensioners were yesterday named as the five victims of a man who attacked residents of a small Norwegian town in a bow and arrow rampage.

The names were released as Norway reels from the bloody episode, with questions asked about the police’s handling of the incident.

Gun Marith Madsen, 78, an artist, was reportedly killed by Espen Andersen Brathen with a machete in her bathroom after he broke in through her front door. He also broke into 56-year-old Hanne Englund’s home and killed her. She was remembered by neighbours as a skilled potter and pillar of the community.

Brathen also targeted their neighbours, pensioners Liv Borge, 75, and Gunnar Sauve, 75, who were watching television. Yesterday it was unclear exactly where and when the last of the victims, Andréa Meyer, 52, was killed.

Brathen also fired arrows at people shopping in a local supermarket, before finally being apprehended.

Criticism has been voiced over the slow police response to the attack.

“34 minutes in Kongsberg is a very long time” said Kjetil Stormark, the author of two books on Norwegian terrorist attacks and a resident of Kongsberg.

“It takes a few minutes to drive across town. So half an hour is far too long to stop a man on a killing spree. I think the police and others will agree on that.”

Questions have also been raised over whether the attack could have been prevented, after it emerged that the Norwegian security services, PST, first received a tip about Espen Andersen Brathen in 2015.

Three years later, Brathen released a threatening online video.

Trond Hugubakken, a PST spokesman, said there was not enough evidence to charge him at the time.

“We had a conversation with him and felt he had a fairly good explanation for himself. He said sorry for posting it and that he didn’t mean what he said. He did not make us concerned about his radicalisation, though we were concerned about his mental state.”

Emilie Mehl, 28, the new justice minister who took office the morning after the attack, will now have to address these questions. She is the country’s youngest ever justice minister and rose to prominence campaigning on rural issues in Norway and being a regular reality show contestant.