Norway is to go ahead with plans that allow its security forces to carry firearms at all times, not just in special situations, in response to an increased terror threat.
"Uniformed officers on surveillance and intervention duties will carry a gun starting today," Norway's National Police Directorate said in a statement on Tuesday.
It added, "The reason has to do with the risk assessment by PST (Norwegian intelligence services), which indicates that the police and the army are possible targets of terrorist attacks."
The comments come on the day that PST announced there is a 60- to 90-percent chance that Norway will be exposed to a terror attack during the next year.
Martin Berntsen, Head of information at PST, stated that the chance is greater for an act of terror to occur than the chance of it not happening.
“It is very difficult to evaluate the terror danger in percentage, and how likely it is that an incident will occur in the future,” Berntsen said.
On Friday, Norway’s national police commissioner, Odd Reidar Humlegard, asked Justice Minister Anders Anundsen for the right that police be armed at all times.
“They (the police directorate) have presented a quite clear, professional view on this, and we have followed up on it,” Anundsen said, adding, “This has been done to take care of the police’s own safety and ability to respond quickly.”
Norwegian authorities have said they fear the return of militants currently fighting alongside terrorist groups in Syria to the Nordic country.
According to PST, about 60 Norwegian nationals have taken part or are still participating in militancy in war-torn Syria.
Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since March 2011. More than 200,000 people have been killed so far in the conflict, according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein.
Western powers and some of their regional allies -- especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey -- are reportedly supporting the militants operating in Syria.
