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AN artist in her 50s who was one of five victims killed in Norway during a horrific bow & arrow rampage screamed for her life as she lay dying in a pool of blood.

Hanne Englund died in agony outside her home in Kongsberg after being targeted by "unstable" Espen Bråthen, 37.

Hanne Englund was one of the five victims killed in yesterday's bow & arrow attack
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Hanne Englund was one of the five victims killed in yesterday's bow & arrow attackCredit: Facebook / Hanne Englund
The ceramics artist was left to die in a pool of blood outside her home
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The ceramics artist was left to die in a pool of blood outside her homeCredit: Facebook / Hanne Englund
Espen Andersen Bråthen has been named as the bow and arrow attacker suspect
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Espen Andersen Bråthen has been named as the bow and arrow attacker suspect

Three other women and a man are thought to have been killed during the suspected terror attack on Wednesday.

Hanne was a ceramic artist who worked from a studio attached to her home, which is located around 300 yards from where the attack began.

Thomas Nilsen, who lives nearby, told the MailOnline: "I heard awful yelling and screaming while I was at home. It sounded like a couple quarrelling or fighting.

"Five minutes later, I heard the sound of a lady yelling, like I had never heard before. It was just fearful and a sound of desperation. In my mind these were the shrieks of a person dying. 

"Later, I saw the huge pool of blood. I knew the lady so well."

He added after hearing the woman howling there was complete silence as five or six people including paramedics tried to revive her.

Mr Nilsen also recalled "twenty heavily armed police with machine guns" at the scene and paramedics trying to revive Hanne.

He said: "Paramedics were working on the poor woman, and were yelling, 'defibrillator' as they desperately tried to hold on to her life before she was taken away in an ambulance.

🔵 Read our Norway attacks live blog for the latest updates

"She was flamboyant, beautiful and warm hearted. She was like a butterfly.

"She had time for everyone. I only spoke to her yesterday morning, and now this happens. It is just horrendous."

Bråthen unleashed a 35-minute killing spree in a town in Norway, as cops desperately hunted him down following reports he was randomly spraying arrows at shoppers.

He has been described as an "unstable" loner who once threatened to kill his dad.

People laying flowers and lighting candles in Kongsberg to honour the dead
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People laying flowers and lighting candles in Kongsberg to honour the deadCredit: AFP
An arrow left in a wall following the rampage
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An arrow left in a wall following the rampage
Five people were killed and two others injured
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Five people were killed and two others injuredCredit: AP
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The horrific attack unfolded in the small town of Kongsberg, home to about 25,000 people 50 miles west of Oslo after about 6.30pm local time.

As well as the five killed, who were all aged between 50 and 70, two people were also wounded.

Bråthen, a Danish national who lives in the Kongsberg area and is said to have psychiatric problems, has been held in custody after he admitted to being the killer. It is believed he acted alone.

I saw people flee for their lives. One was a woman holding a child in her hand

Witness

According to court documents and neighbours, Bråthen was an "unstable" loner who owned a collection of weapons and rarely left his flat as he suffered mental health issues and was estranged from his family.

Today Norway’s domestic security agency, known by its acronym PST, said the incident appeared to have been an act of terrorism.

It said in a statement: "The investigation will clarify in more detail what the incidents were motivated by."

Police said the Danish man suspected of the attack is a Muslim convert who was previously flagged as having been radicalised.

Disturbing details emerged about the background of the killer.

He was born and always lived in Norway, but has Danish citizenship and has been in trouble with police several times, the most recent in May 2020.

On May 29, he entered his parent's house and ordered them all to leave, threatening to kill his dad.

After he left, his shocked relatives found a Colt revolver pistol on the sofa.

A court then issued a restraining order barring him from seeing his mum and dad, which he breached months later.

Neighbours of the alleged killer also told Aftenposten, Norway's largest newspaper, they saw him training with weapons in his garden.

Described as doing martial arts in a "brutal fighting style" with "a club or baton", he caught the attention of the police who were said to have been pictured in his garden with helmets on one occasion.

I am a messenger and I come with a warning... It is time... Bear witness that I am a Muslim

Espen Brathensuspected bow and arrow killer

Other ex-neighbours, Silje Limstrand, 22, and Gudoon Hersi, 21, told the newspaper they were terrified of Bråthen, who would make racist comments and act in a threatening and bizarre way - often pacing up and down the street.

Bråthen, a Muslim convert, was on a terror watchlist and also made a chilling Facebook video.

The shaven-headed suspect reads in English in the clip from a note saying: "Hello. I am a messenger and I come with a warning.

"Is this really what you want? It is time. Bear witness that I am a Muslim."

Attacks on random people in public places are a recurring modus operandi among extremist Islamists carrying out terror in the West.

Police chief Ole B. Saeverud told a news conference today: "Witnesses saw lifeless people, heard intense howls and screams and saw people running for their lives in the streets."

Bråthen has been charged with the deaths of five victims.

TIMELINE OF TERROR

The atrocity unfolded after 6.12pm when police were alerted to a man shooting arrows at people. 

Five minutes later the police control room received reports that several people were hit by arrows.

At 6.18pm a first police patrol arrives outside Coop Extra supermarket inside which the shooter was targeting shoppers and staff. 

Moments before, two students calling at the Coop store for groceries told of their shock after finding the security guard at the door with an arrow in his back.

The guard is thought to be one of the two survivors of the horror and believed to have cheated death because the arrow head missed vital organs by millimetres.

The students named only as James, 21, and David, 20, said they didn't encounter the archer but saw his arrows scattered outside the store.

Witnesses saw lifeless people, heard intense howls and screams and saw people running for their lives in the streets

Police chief Ole B. Saeverud witness

Three police patrols rushed to the scene but were not armed and needed to seek permission to use guns carried in their vehicles before confronting the attacker.

Chiefs confirmed he "probably" launched into his deadly spree after cops arrived — and escaped after sending them fleeing with a volley of arrows without them returning fire.

Police chief Ole B. Saeverud told a news conference witnesses saw 'lifeless people, heard intense howls and screams'
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Police chief Ole B. Saeverud told a news conference witnesses saw 'lifeless people, heard intense howls and screams'Credit: EPA
Police officers investigate at the scene where an arrow shot into a wall
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Police officers investigate at the scene where an arrow shot into a wallCredit: Reuters

At 6.28pm with officers scouring the streets, the public was warned on Twitter to stay indoors.

Meanwhile, the killer was believed to have picked out people on the streets.

Some reports say people were found dead in their homes, although it is unclear if they were targeted outside and staggered inside.

At 6.47pm he surrendered himself by the entrance to a bridge after cops fired warning shots in his direction. 

Witnesses spoke of finding a seriously injured woman with an arrow in her body calling out for help in a pool of blood near a traffic junction.

One told TV 2: "There were crazy screams of women. I've never heard anything like it. It was a death cry."

Harrowing images taken in the street show arrows stuck inside a wall after the suspect allegedly missed his target.

Norway's royal family expressed its sympathies.

"We're horrified by the tragic events at Kongsberg," King Harald said in a letter addressed to the town's mayor.

"The rest of the nation stands with you," the 84-year-old monarch wrote.

Acting Prime Minister Erna Solberg reassured the nation "the police are now in control" in a press conference on the "gruesome" attack.

The attack happened on the eve of a new government taking power.

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Ms Solberg said the mass murder would not affect the handover and the new prime minister would be sworn in as planned.

Last night's shooting was the deadliest attack in Norway in a decade after far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people in 2011.  

Forensic police officers at the scene this morning
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Forensic police officers at the scene this morningCredit: Reuters
Multiple people have been killed after a man opened fire with a bow and arrow
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Multiple people have been killed after a man opened fire with a bow and arrowCredit: Twitter
An investigation is underway into the suspected terror attack
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An investigation is underway into the suspected terror attackCredit: Twitter
Several others were also injured in the horror attack
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Several others were also injured in the horror attack

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