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Norway attack: Police now say victims stabbed, not shot with bow and arrows

In a reversal of information, police in Norway now say that the man who killed five people in Norway last week used “stabbing weapons,” not a bow and arrows as police initially told media outlets.

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Police inspector Per Thomas Omholt made the revelation during a news conference Monday, nearly a week after the attack, Reuters reported.

Omholt did not disclose if the “stabbing weapons” were knives or something else. He also did not address why it took six days to clarify what weapons were used, Reuters reported.

Initially, police said a man “armed with” a bow and arrow had committed the murders. Eventually, they said that other weapons were involved, but didn’t disclose at the time what those weapons were.

Police said people were shot at with the arrows when the attack started but “at some point, he discarded or lost his bow and arrows,” The Guardian reported.

“We don’t want to go out with what kind of stabbing weapons were used as all witnesses at the scene haven’t been questioned yet,” Omholt said, according to The Associated Press.

The AP reported Monday that Espen Andersen Braathen wounded the victims with bow and arrows, but then stabbed them, killing them.

Five people — four women and one man — were killed in Wednesday’s attack, The Guardian reported. They were apparently selected at random.

“Some were killed inside their own homes, others out in public,” Omholt said, according to The Guardian.

Police said that the man’s apparent mental illness was the cause of the attack and that his conversion to Islam has become less important as the investigation progresses, the AP reported.