The threat to Jewish and Israeli targets in Norway is seen as significantly increased. The terror threat level is therefore raised from moderate to high, and the police is armed.

• There are multiple negative conditions that have increased the terror threat, among others conditions related to the ongoing escalation of the conflict in the Middle East. In Norway it is first and foremost threats to Jewish and Israeli targets that are significantly raised, says PST senior advisor Eirik Veum to the Norwegian News Agency.

He says that the PST does not wish to say anything concrete about what this entails, but informs that the PST is available for the press from 17 o’clock.

• The PST has at the time no information on if there are concrete plans at hand for committing terrorist acts against targets in Norway, but we are working quickly with clearing up threats and points of insecurity, Veum says.

The “high” terror threat level is a level 4 on a scale of 1 to 5.

The police director has based on the threat evaluation decided that the police should be armed nationwide.

• The PST describes a serious and tense situation in the Middle East. Increased likelihood for attempted terror in Norway is a situation the police take incredibly seriously, and we have a number of measures for protecting the people and ensuring we are as prepared as possible, says police director Benedicte Bjørnland in a press release.

The temporary arming of the police is effective immediately.

• The decision is based on that the police should be able to go quicker into action in the case of a possible terror attack to prevent it, limit the area of damage, or stop an ongoing attack, says Bjørnland.

The police have for a longer period had more measures for the purposes of protecting Jewish and Israeli interests in Norway. This effort is now being strengthened.

• Going forward we will have increased attention directed to the fact that state actors can use criminal networks for committing terrorism, and which consequences this has for the police’s efforts against these milieus, says Bjørnland.