Attempts to set fire to Oslo museums fail

On on March 11 arsonists attempted to set fire to two famous Oslo museums at Bygdøy, reports ABC News. The museums are housing artifacts from Norwegian explorer expeditions.

The blazes were rapidly extinguished or failed, police said.

Over the past 10 days there have been at least six attempts at setting a fire around the three museums, reports the Norway Post.

The most serious attempt concerned the Fram Museum, home to the boat of the same name sailed between 1893 and 1912 by Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup and Roald Amundsen on their expeditions to the North and South Pole.

Wooden planks and doors piled up next to the museum wall, as well as a garbage can, were set alight. Flames penetrated inside the museum before the fire was extinguished. Tore Barstad of the Oslo police said fire fighters “probably prevented a national catastrophe”.

Arsonists also appear to have targeted the neighbouring Kon-Tiki Museum, home to a famous rudimentary raft of the same name that carried Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl and his crew across the South Pacific in 1947.

Police said they discovered objects at the scene, indicating that the attempt to set fire to the building had failed. “We have found clues that lend credence to the theory that people have tried to set fire to the Kon-Tiki Museum,” Mr Barstad said.

According to Norwegian media reports, around a half dozen fires have recently been set in the neighborhood. Both museums said they planned to increase security.

Source: abc.net.au