Norway’s capital Oslo has seen a sharp increase in cases of outdoor rape, with the number of attacks in 2011 already double the total for the previous year, according to figures compiled by newspaper Aftenposten.
Police in Oslo registered 24 such cases in 2010 compared to 48 so far this year, Aftenposten said.
Opposition politicians are again raising the alarm and making connections to “the porno generation”. An alert has been put out for a “non-Western-looking” suspect after the most recent attack.
“It can not be denied that many of the culprits have an ethnic background with a critical view of women,” Conservative party justice critic Andre Oktay Dahl told TV2.
“We need more visible policing,” he said.
He called for a force of “volunteer police like has been done in Canada”. Others have called for the introduction of a specialized vice squad.
One of Saturday night’s two assaults happened just metres from the pristine palace residence of Norway’s royal family.
TV images of the crime scene of Oslo’s 48th sexual assault of the year showed forensic experts in white coveralls working against the backdrop of the Royal Palace.
A 20-year-old woman was attacked by two men after leaving the company of friends to walk home through Slottsparken palace park. One of her two assailants was described as “dark-skinned and round in the face”.
The same night a 17-year-old girl victim ran nude into the street in a desperate run from her attacker in an Oslo flat.