Young asylum seeker
shot in his bed
A 16 year-old asylum seeker from Somalia, was shot and critically injured while sleeping in his bed at reception centre outside Oslo. He was hit in the stomach by a rifle round fired through the wall of his room. Police speculate that he may be a random victim.
 The shot, which critically injured a 16 year-old asylum seeker, was shot from a distance through a wall at a reception centre outside Oslo. PHOTO: HANS O. TOGERSEN |
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All available units from the Asker and Bærum police district have been mobilized and specialist teams and helicopters have been drafted in from neighbouring Oslo.
"This is an extremely serious event. We hope and pray that the 16 year-old will recover," says police inspector Einar Aas of the Asker and Bærum police.
The neighbourhood around the reception centre was cordoned off after the shooting and crime scene investigators have gone over the area.
No arrests had been made by Friday evening. In the mean time the youth was taken to Ullevål University Hospital where he underwent a series of operations to save his life.
Several witnesses remember hearing shots late Thursday evening and Friday morning. They were interviewed during the course of Friday afternoon.
The Hvalstad reception centre for asylum seekers aged 15 to 18, lies in a leafy low rise suburb south west of Oslo.
Police have discovered that several shots have been fired at two of the buildings at the centre. Police believe that 7.62 millimetre ammunition, common in hunting rifles and military weapons, was used.
Ballistics specialists are calculating where the shots were fired from.
Meanwhile the other residents of the centre are being attended to by a crisis team of counselors and translators.
"Our main concern is to make sure that we are doing as much as possible for the people living at the centre," says Åsmund Eide of the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) to news bureau NTB.
Investigations will seek to discover whether the shooting was a random act, an accident or a hate crime.
Sven Goll
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