Shots fired at Oslo synagogue: police
Pastor Dale Morgan
Shots fired at Oslo synagogue: police*
Reuters
Sunday, September 17, 2006; 7:39 AM
OSLO (Reuters) - Shots were fired at a synagogue in central Oslo early
on Sunday and police said they were investigating whether the incident
was linked to religious hatred.
Armed police sealed off the synagogue after the incident at around 2.30
a.m. (0030 GMT). No one was injured.
"It seems some of the shots hit the synagogue," said Bjoern Christian
Joergensen, a police spokesman.
Asked if the shooting was connected to religious intolerance, he said:
"We are keeping all options open and investigating this possibility."
The Mosaic Religious Community, which owns the synagogue, had asked for
better protection of its property following threats and after the site
was vandalised in early August.
"This is the last in a series of incidents this summer whose purpose, it
sees, is to scare us," Anne Sender, the leader of the Mosaic Religious
Community, told Reuters.
"We cannot speculate who is behind this incident and must allow the
police more time to investigate," she said.
She said Oslo had an active Jewish community of around 800 members and
the same number of non-practising Jews.
National news agency NTB quoted news photographer Morten Holm as saying:
"We could see at least three or four bullet holes on the facade of the
building, around the Star of David."
"We have searched the area with police dogs to secure any evidence, but
we have still not found the perpetrator," police official Bjoern Oelstad
was quoted as saying by NTB.
Norway's Jewish community had asked its members not to speak Hebrew on
the streets of Oslo after an assault on a man wearing a yarmulke in
July. In August a man defecated on the steps of the Oslo synagogue and
smashed two windows there.