PST on Pride events in 2023: – Attempts at terrorist acts still possible
Photo: Thomas Evensen / TV 2
The case is updated.
On Thursday, PST published a new threat assessment particularly linked to the celebration of Pride 2023.
The terrorist threat in Norway is moderate, and PST still considers it possible that we will see attempted terrorist acts from both the far-right and extreme Islamists.
Last year Zaniar Matapour (43) killed two men and injured 23 others when he shot at the pubs London pub and Per on the corner. The police believe the act was Islamist-motivated, with people from the LGBT community as targets.
PST points out that LGBT+ are in the image of the enemy of both the far-right and extreme Islamists, and that attacks against this group have become actualized in the past year.
– Both far-right and extreme Islamist propaganda encourage attacking easily accessible targets with few security measures. Populous targets with few or no security measures are therefore attractive terrorist targets, and a large proportion of carried out and averted attacks in recent years have been aimed at such targets, writes PST in the threat assessment.
The security service further points out that it is particularly Pride events that gather large crowds that will be attractive targets.
– PST’s assessment is that a possible terrorist attack will most likely be carried out by individuals. Both far-right and extreme Islamist propaganda encourage attacking easily accessible targets with few security measures. Such targets make it possible to hit many people with simple means, says the report.
