UPDATED: A family brawl among 10 people at Ellingsrud in northeast Oslo left a two-year-old girl dead, one critically injured and three others wounded on Friday night. Police arrested several people at the scene of what was described as a massive knife fight.

The fight was reported shortly before 5pm, police told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK). Details were sketchy in initial reports from the scene, with one person reported dead and three persons said to be critically injured.

It wasn’t until later that police confirmed that the victim of the deadly brawl that shocked the Ellingsrud neighbourhood was the two-year-old daughter of a man from Afghanistan who had been ordered to leave Norway more than a year ago. “We can’t say anything more about that case, but we know he was supposed to have left Norway by February 7, 2013,” Kari Janne Lid of the Oslo Police District told state broadcaster NRK.

The 35-year-old defendant has now been charged with the premeditated murder of his two-year-old daughter. The child’s mother, an Iraqi with Norwegian citizenship, and her mother were among those injured in the brawl and both were admitted to hospital. Another close relative remained in critical condition on Saturday, while the young victim’s uncle was also in the hospital with stab wounds.

A firearm pulled out during the fight was seized by police, and turned out to be a model gun.

Motive unclear

Police said on Saturday that they still had not clarified a motive for the violence. The Afghan charged with murdering his daughter suffered minor injuries and was under arrest. His defense attorney had still not spoken with him as of Saturday afternoon.

Shocked neighbours laid down flowers and lit candles at the scene of the brawl outside a large multifamily apartment house on Dragonstien at Ellingsrud. Both they and the police described the scene as “extremely chaotic” and police were questioning witnesses.

The neighbourhood was cordoned off during the evening and police weren’t ruling out the possibility that more people would be charged in the case.

The local church in the areas was staying open through the weekend to serve as a gathering place for residents. Crisis teams were also due to be present from 4pm to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday, to talk with anyone needed help or support.

“It’s important that everyone has someone to talk to, and a place to go,” Tore Olsen Pran, local neighbourhood director for Alna, told NRK.

newsinenglish.no staff