Norway witnesses mass brawls as people celebrate end of COVID restrictions

After Norwegian government abruptly announced to lift all restrictions related to COVID-19, a large number of people on Saturday flocked to streets, bars, restaurants and nightclubs to celebrate uninterrupted movement in country after such a long gap. surprising decision announced by outgoing Prime Minister Erna Solberg to lift restrictions that were invoked since pandemic hit country, caused chaotic scenes in capital, Oslo, and elsewhere in country. police were seen struggling to deal with people as several cases of violence were reported from bars and nightclubs.   

"It has been 561 days since we introduced toughest measures in Norway in peacetime," Solberg said on Friday at a news conference. "Now time has come to return to a normal daily life."

According to police, noisy and disorderly celebrations started on Saturday afternoon after Prime Minister announcement and lasted until early hours of Sunday. y said reports of violence were reported across sourn city since announcement but situation in national capital deteriorated. Earlier, COVID vaccination status certificates or negative test results were required to enter public places in Norway.  However, with latest announcement, people are free to move anywhere in country without any health documents. According to police, y registered at least 50 cases of fights and disturbances related to Oslo’s nightclubs, bars and restaurants.

"That’s exactly what I predicted would happen,” angry nightclub manager Johan Hoeeg Haanes in Oslo told Norwegian newspaper VG. "It was a life-threatening situation in city because y (government) didn’t give us at least a few days vance notice. This was a dangerous situation, as police said all places were packed."

Nearly 70% of Norway population inoculated both COVID vaccine shots

Apart from celebration related cases, police also received an alert about a man carrying a machete on a bus in Oslo. Some people also reported cases of fainting while waiting to get into pubs in Trondheim. "re was a significantly greater worklo (Saturday) than during summer. re were a lot of people out alrey in afternoon and it continued during night," Oslo police spokesman Rune Hekkelstrand told Norwegian public brocaster NRK. It is worth noting that Scandinavian country has become second country in Nordic region to lift coronavirus restrictions. Earlier, Denmark h lifted COVID restrictions on 10 September, this year. According to Norway Health Department, more than 76% of population received one vaccine dose, and nearly 70% have h both shots.  

(With inputs from AP)

(Image: AP)