Norway mosque shooter 'killed teenage sister over her 'Chinese origin'

Norway mosque shooter 'killed teenage sister over her 'Chinese origin'

A Norwegian man accused of killing his stepsister before opening fire in a mosque near Oslo in August had racist motives, police said on Tuesday, confirming he shot her because of her Chinese origin.

Philip Manshaus, 22, was arrested after opening fire in the Al-Noor mosque in an affluent Oslo suburb on August 10 before he was overpowered by a 65-year-old man.

Just three worshippers were in the mosque at the time, and there were no serious injuries.

The body of his 17-year-old stepsister was later found in their home.

Adopted by his father's girlfriend, Johanne Zhangjia Ihle-Hansen, was killed by four bullets, police said in a statement.

The autopsy report said she was shot three times in the head and once in the chest, each one fatal. She was found in her bed.

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Manshaus' explanation and technical evidence, including the lack of a struggle, "support the version that she was killed because of what the attacker considers as race, because she was of Asian origin", police official Pal-Fredrik Hjort Kraby told TV2.

Police had until now been considering two possible motives for her murder: that of a racist crime, and that she may have found out about his plan for the mosque shooting and tried to stop him.

Kraby said that a .22-calibre rifle found in Manshaus' car at the mosque was the same weapon used in the shooting of Ihle-Hansen.

Norwegian media outlets have reported that Manshaus posted a message praising mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March, a few hours before the mosque attack in Baerum.

Manshaus, who is being held in custody pending formal charges, has admitted to the facts but has rejected the "terrorist act" and "murder" suspicions against him.

On September 9, at a court hearing to extend his detention in custody, Manshaus raised his arm in a Nazi salute to the assembled media.

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