Police across Norway dealt with a long list of incidents overnight into Sunday, 1 November, as Halloween celebrations tipped into disorder in several districts. In Tromsø, officers had what they believed was a firearm pointed at them during a disturbance in Storgata, and a 16-year-old boy was taken to the police station with his guardians called in, according to VG. Elsewhere in the country, police reported intoxicated minors, fireworks, parties broken up and, in Nordland, a masked person said to have frightened people with a genuine chainsaw.
Why it matters
The Tromsø case is the most serious of the night because of how close it came to escalating. Police said the object was hard to tell apart from a weapon at a distance, and that the outcome could have been far worse. The other reports — scattered from Telemark to Østfold to Trøndelag — show how much of the night's police workload came from unsupervised teenage gatherings rather than from the holiday itself.
Replica gun in Tromsø
Officers were responding to a disturbance in Storgata in Tromsø when several police personnel had what they perceived as a firearm aimed at them. The suspect was identified as a 16-year-old boy, who was brought in to the police station and whose guardians were summoned. Police have filed a report on the incident.
According to VG, police described the difficulty of distinguishing the object from a real weapon at a distance. A police representative, Andreassen, said the force views the episode very seriously, noting that in the worst case it could have led officers to fire their own weapons. On Sunday morning police said a case had been opened against the youth and that the matter is being followed up.
TV 2 and Nordlys both covered the incident, with Nordlys reporting that police in the Troms district issued a warning about the legal grounds for officers to discharge firearms. NRK described the night in Troms as hectic for the local force.
Parties, fireworks and a chainsaw
In Nordland, police said a masked individual walked around frightening people with a real chainsaw. No injuries were reported in the summary.
In Vestfold, officers were called to a disused kindergarten where children in their early teens had set off fireworks.
In Telemark, police came across between 100 and 150 young people at a playground and contacted parents. VG reported that several of those present were intoxicated and lightly dressed in seven-degree temperatures, and that parents had to collect young people in several locations.
In Østfold, parents were called to pick up intoxicated teenagers who had gathered at petrol stations in the area. At a private address in the same county, between 30 and 40 young people had assembled and there were the beginnings of a fight, though the situation calmed once police and parents arrived.
In Drammen, teenagers scattered in all directions when a patrol arrived and the party was shut down on the spot. At a location in Akershus, about 60 young people were gathered when the party got out of hand, several of them reportedly well intoxicated; police notified parents and broke it up. In Ås, a party ended after the fire alarm at student housing went off twice without any fire.
In Trøndelag, police responded to a report that someone had been struck in the face at a Halloween party. Operation leader Anlaug Oseid told VG that two teenagers were ordered away from the location. Oseid said a great deal had happened and that police had received reports of fights throughout the night in several places, in comments to VG shortly before 2:30am on Sunday.
Watch for police follow-up on the Tromsø case and any charges against the 16-year-old, along with local assessments of how Halloween gatherings were managed.
