World Gay News

Two killed after reported shooting at Oslo’s London Pub gay bar – The Washington Post

Placeholder while article actions load

At least two people were killed and more than a dozen injured after a shooting overnight Friday in central Oslo, local police said.

The shooting took place at the London Pub, an LGBTQ nightclub that bills itself as the “gay headquarters since 1979,” Norwegian public broadcaster NRK reported. Pride Parade, a highlight of Oslo’s pride celebrations, is set to take place Saturday. The police are also investigating two other venues — a bar near London Pub and a fast-food restaurant — in connection with the shooting, according to Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten.

A spokeswoman for Oslo University Hospital told The Washington Post that the facility received seven patients, with one other person sent to a hospital outside the Norwegian capital. Eleven people who suffered minor injuries were sent to local emergency rooms, she said.

Law enforcement said they had taken a person into custody near the scene of the shooting. They have not commented on a possible motive, though a police official told NRK that they did not currently believe it was a terrorist incident and the evidence suggests there was a lone gunman.

London Pub is located in the vicinity of the Storting, Norway’s legislature. It has hosted Pride-related celebrations for years and on Thursday held a drag show and a Pride-themed bingo session.

Oslo Pride organizers wrote on social media early Saturday that they were shocked by the incident and are in contact with police. Law enforcement is assessing the potential fallout of the shooting on the Saturday parade, Aftenposten reported.

The number of gay bars has dwindled. A new generation plans to bring them back.

Norway has some of Europe’s more gay-friendly laws. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store marked the 50th anniversary of the country’s decriminalization of male same-sex relations by formally apologizing for its past treatment of the LGBTQ community.

“I apologise for the fact that the Norwegian authorities conveyed, through legislation, and also a range of other discriminatory practices, that gay love was not acceptable,” he said.

In July 2011, a Norwegian man killed 77 people by setting off a bomb outside the prime minister’s office in Oslo and opening fire at a youth summer camp organized by the left-leaning Labor Party, in one of the Nordic country’s most heinous crimes in recent memory. Norwegian lawmakers have since banned semiautomatic weapons such as the firearm used in the 2011 rampage.

Loading…