Oslo Nightclub Shooting: Terror Attack on LGBTQ+ Venues (2022)

June 25, 2022

In the early hours of June 25, 2022, a gunman opened fire at three locations in central Oslo, including the popular London Pub, a well-known gathering place for the city's LGBTQ+ community. Two people were killed and 21 others were wounded in an attack that Norwegian police quickly identified as suspected Islamist terrorism targeting queer nightlife. The shooting forced the cancellation of Oslo's annual Pride parade just hours before it was due to begin, marking the country's deadliest terror attack since Anders Behring Breivik's 2011 massacre.

A Night of Violence in Central Oslo

Just after 1:00 a.m. on June 25, 2022, a lone gunman opened fire outside the London Pub on Rosenkrantz gate, a bar long regarded as a cornerstone of Oslo's LGBTQ+ nightlife scene. The attacker moved between the pub, the nearby Per på Hjørnet restaurant, and a convenience store, firing indiscriminately at patrons and passersby enjoying a warm summer night. Two men were killed in the assault, while 21 other people suffered injuries, some from gunfire and others from the chaos and panic as crowds fled the scene. Armed police officers arrived within minutes and apprehended the suspect at the scene, preventing further bloodshed. The attack sent shockwaves through Oslo, a city of roughly 700,000 residents unaccustomed to gun violence, let alone a mass shooting deliberately aimed at a specific community. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre condemned the attack as a "cruel and deeply shocking" act, while the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) swiftly raised the national terror threat level, treating the shooting as an act of terrorism rather than an isolated crime. The timing—hours before the city's Pride parade—amplified fears that the LGBTQ+ community had been deliberately singled out for violence.

The Perpetrator and Suspected Motive

Police identified the gunman as Zaniar Matapour, a Norwegian citizen of Iranian Kurdish descent in his early forties. Investigators quickly established that PST had been aware of Matapour for years due to his contacts within extremist Islamist networks operating in Norway, though he had not been under active surveillance at the time of the attack. Authorities described him as having a history of mental health issues alongside radicalized views, raising questions during the subsequent investigation about the interplay between ideology and psychiatric instability. Prosecutors argued that Matapour had deliberately targeted the London Pub because of its identity as an LGBTQ+ venue, framing the assault as an Islamist-motivated hate crime against sexual minorities. A second man was also arrested in connection with the case, as police worked to determine whether Matapour had acted entirely alone or received assistance in planning the attack. The investigation drew comparisons to a foiled 2020 plot in Norway and to broader patterns of Islamist extremist violence against LGBTQ+ communities seen elsewhere in Europe, including the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting in the United States, which shared disturbing similarities in both target and apparent motive.

Aftermath, Trial, and Lasting Impact

Within hours of the shooting, organizers cancelled Oslo Pride's main parade, which had been scheduled to draw tens of thousands of participants through the city center that same day, marking the first time in the event's history that safety concerns forced such a cancellation. Vigils and memorial gatherings took its place, as Norwegians of all backgrounds laid flowers near the London Pub and voiced solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community. Matapour was formally charged with terrorism-related murder and attempted murder, and his trial opened in Oslo in 2023, becoming one of the most closely watched legal proceedings in Norway since Breivik's own trial a decade earlier. Prosecutors and defense psychiatrists debated his criminal responsibility given his documented mental health struggles, but the court ultimately found him accountable for his actions. He was convicted and sentenced to forvaring, Norway's indefinite preventive detention reserved for the most dangerous offenders, with a minimum term set well beyond two decades. The attack prompted renewed national debate over surveillance of radicalized individuals, mental health intervention, and the safety of LGBTQ+ spaces, cementing June 25, 2022, as a somber marker in Norway's modern history.