Monday, February 27, 2012

Allah’s Hammer

Cultural Enrichment News

Forget Thor — a servant of Allah was the one wielding the hammer tonight in Norway. A young drunken culture-enricher hijacked a bus using a hammer.

Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer has translated a news report about the incident. He includes this note:

This article is about a bus hijacking in Skien (approximately 2.5 hours southwest of Oslo) which occurred a couple of hours ago. The hijacker has been described as a Palestinian male.

The driver of the bus was visibly upset after the incident, and I don’t blame him. In 2003 another bus driver, Audun Bøland, was stabbed to death by an Ethiopian asylum seeker.

There have also been other episodes of cultural enrichers going berserk on board public transportation in Norway. Most noteworthy are the Kato air incident in 2004, when an Algerian man tried to bring down a small-engine passenger plane in Northern Norway with an axe, and of course the tram incident in Oslo in 2004 when a Somali male stabbed one passenger to death and critically injured six others.

The translated article from VG.no:

Eyewitness: The hijacker was furious when we disembarked

SKIEN / OSLO (AP) When the passengers disembarked the bus, the hijacker shouted, “Don’t let them off, don’t let them off.”

Sandra Svendsen (15) was on the M3 bus, en route between Skien and Porsgrunn, when it was hijacked at Klyve around 19.30 pm on Monday evening.

“A man came on board. He refused to pay for the ticket and started arguing with the driver,” Svendsen says to VG nett.

He then somehow managed to grab hold of a hammer mounted on the wall and began to threaten the driver. The other passengers were not allowed to get off the bus.

“The hijacker told the driver not to drop below 60 km/h [approx 40 miles per hour]. It was a frightening experience,” Svendsen says.

Was furious

The hijacker kept walking around the bus and sat down in different seats.

“He also tried to cover himself with a hood to conceal his face. He appeared to be quite intoxicated,” Svendsen says.

After a few minutes, a man shouted that he had to get off to pick up his kids. The bus driver was allowed to stop. When the bus came to a halt all the passengers on board disembarked.

“This made the hijacker furious. He shouted to the driver: ‘Don’t let them off, don’t let them off.’”

On the run

After Sandra and the other passengers had left, the driver was forced to continue on. At one stage the police had no idea where the bus was.

“The bus was eventually recovered at Bjørnstad. The alleged offender was arrested approximately 500 meters from the site,” the leader of operations from Telemark police precinct, Jens Arne Bærland told VG Nett.

The arrested man is 24 years old, and according to the police he is of foreign descent. He was arrested at 19.49 pm.

“The hijacker recently escaped from a psychiatric institution. He is now being examined by a doctor, and we hope to be able to question him thoroughly in the morning,” Bærland says.

The 24-year-old has acknowledged to police that he was the one responsible for the hijacking.

Upset driver

No one were physically injured in the bus drama, but the driver is upset and is currently being looked after by his employer and health care professionals.

“He is clearly shaken by the incident,” Bærland says.

Police are appealing to passengers that were onboard the hijacked but to contact them

“We want to talk to them,” Bærland says.


Thanks to Kitman for the title of this post.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

10 comments:

Nemesis said...

Wasn't there just one person on that bus who was prepared to tackle that idiot?

Anonymous said...

Here's an idea: when you're boarding public transport you can buy your ticket, and be issued with a hammer.

If everyone on board the bus has the ability to knock a-holes like this out with one smack to the napper, that'll put a stop to this right quick.

Because the minute guys like this stand up and start shouting and waving their arms around ... bango! Someone seated behind them will switch their lights out.

Worth a go? Pilot scheme in Norway, perhaps? Just to see if the stats go down ...

Anonymous said...

This could also be adopted on aeroplanes. Everyone going through the gate is issued with a ball pein hammer.

The minute a would-be terrorist stands up and shouts out the takbir, whoever's seated behind him could just lay him out. Problem solved.

Who needs air marshals?

Chiu ChunLing said...

There are some weapons that have an intimidation value high enough to hold large numbers of the unarmed at bay by dramatically shifting the balance of combat power.

There are others that would only make a small difference as opposed to being unarmed, and then only in trained, experienced hands.

But a hammer designed for breaking out windows in the event of an emergency doesn't quite make it into the category of "weapon" at all.

stephen said...

Blogger Chiu ChunLing said...

But a hammer designed for breaking out windows in the event of an emergency doesn't quite make it into the category of "weapon" at all.

Unless, of course, you happened to get smacked across the head with it?

Anonymous said...

The next time I board a bus I'm carrying my sledgehammer with me.

Chiu ChunLing said...

I would frankly be more frightened of being hit in the head with something he had secreted from his intestines. But that doesn't make it a weapon.

Anonymous said...

Does no one there carry a knife and cane?

jim

66chevelle said...

Blogger Chiu ChunLing said...

"But a hammer designed for breaking out windows in the event of an emergency doesn't quite make it into the category of "weapon" at all."

It's not the hammer that inhibits. It's the fact that whoever took the dolt out of commission would end up spending more time with the police than the dolt...and they'd likely end up being sued as well.

Blind Druid said...

Why didn't the driver grab the keys and bolt off the bus with the punters? I think I would have. In a flash. I suppose you had to be there.