Bow-and-arrow attack in Norway appears to be an 'act of terror,' police say

A bow-and-arrow attack in which a Danish convert to Islam is suspected of killing five people in a Norwegian town appears to have been an "act of terror," police said Thursday.

Investigators named the suspect as Espen Andersen Braathen, a 37-year-old living in the Kongsberg municipality where the attacks took place on Wednesday evening.

A police attorney told Reuters that Braathen had acknowledged killing the victims. His lawyer confirmed only that Braathen was co-operating with police and giving a detailed statement.

Police had been concerned about signs of radicalization in the suspect before the attacks, carried out with a bow and arrow and other weapons, a senior officer said.

Flags flew at half-mast across Kongsberg after the deaths of four women and a man, all aged between 50 and 70. Three others, including an off-duty police officer, were wounded.

Kongsberg resident Markus Kultima, 23, who works in a beer shop, witnessed parts of the attack.

"I saw a man come walking with an arrow in his back," Kultima told Reuters. He said it was the off-duty officer who told him to head home. "I had to walk in the direction where that guy came from.