Oslo police seek man behind bomb scare at main synagogue

Police in Oslo, Norway, are trying to identify a man who caused a bomb scare at the city’s synagogue by placing an empty suitcase at the building’s entrance.

Security camera footage from early Friday morning showed a man with dark skin who was dressed in black calmly placing the black suitcase near the building’s gate and leaving the scene, the NTB news agency reported.

The Oslo bomb disposal unit opened the suitcase to discover nothing inside after police cordoned off nearby streets and evacuated some neighbors from their homes.

Police believe the man who placed the suitcase outside the synagogue wanted to intimidate the community and cause the bomb scare that the suitcase’s discovery indeed triggered.

In 2006, Islamists fired 13 gunshots at the synagogue, causing no injuries.

Synagogues have been targeted across Scandinavia in recent year, including in Denmark, where a jihadist last year killed a Jewish guard in Copenhagen, and in the Swedish city of Malmo, where several acts of vandalism have been recorded against Jewish targets.