Last update - 00:00 17/09/2006
Shots fired at Oslo synagogue; no injuries, some damage
By 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. local time. 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 vandalized 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-practicing 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 skullcap in July. In August a man defecated on the steps of the Oslo synagogue and smashed two windows there.