The terrorist attack in Oslo: Matapour’s machine gun malfunctioned

Today’s review in the Oslo district court confirms that Zaniar Matapour first fired 8 shots with a Luger pistol. He then switched to a fully automatic MP40 submachine gun, a German holdover from World War II.

– The submachine gun is worn, not taken good care of in recent years, says Øivind Strand, police chief at Kripos.

His investigations show that the machine gun malfunctioned and stopped working when there were 19 rounds left in the magazine. In total, Matapour had over 100 unused cartridges left when he was overpowered.

Should have been destroyed in 1993

– The submachine gun is not registered in the national weapons register, but a search in the Defense’s systems shows that it was registered as discarded in 1993. It is therefore assumed that this weapon should have been destroyed, says Strand.

Kripos has test-fired the submachine gun with approx. 100 cartridges.

– The reason why we fired so many cartridges is that there is a known problem with this particular type of weapon, says Strand and continues:

– How you handle the weapon is of great importance to whether you can shoot without problem, or whether malfunctions occur.

Kripos managed several times to provoke malfunctions on Matapour’s weapon.

– Both by pushing the magazine forwards and backwards when firing, we got this error, says Strand.

Not finished

State prosecutor Sturla Henriksbø confirms that Matapour’s machine gun stopped working during the attack.

– What we heard today was that the reason why Matapour stopped firing the machine gun was that the machine gun had a malfunction.

– We also heard that an attempt was made to fire further shots, but that the weapons would not fire any more. It also says something about the danger that even more people could have been shot, and in the worst case killed.

– He wasn’t finished?

– That’s what it seems from the weapons technical investigations, concludes Henriksbø.

Rip the gun out of Matapour’s hands

Mats Riskild Aasberg testified two weeks ago in the Oslo district court.

He ran towards those who had been running after Matapour and held him down.

– One shouted “take the weapon”. Only then did I say that he had a gun in his hand, said Aasberg in his testimony.

He held Matapour’s hand and made sure the muzzle of the weapon was pointed down at the ground. Just before the melee, Matapour managed to fire one last shot with the Luger.

– As I work as a fisherman, I know that I am strong, and he held the gun very hard, says Aasberg.

Finally he got hold of the weapon. Then there was a doorman standing around watching, ran out, picked it up and emptied it, explained Aasberg.