Iceland Chilled By Violence Worthy Of Its Noir Novels

Reykjavik, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Apr, 2022 ) :Long considered the "most peaceful country in the world", Iceland's tranquillity has been shattered by a spate of shootings and stabbings involving criminal gangs.

The country of only 375,000 people is more accustomed to reading about murders in its famed Icelandic noir novels than in its morning newspapers.

"A gun for Icelanders symbolises sports" or hunting, said sociologist Helgi Gunnlaugsson.

"It's very alien to the Icelandic mind that you would use a weapon to protect yourself or to point at people," he told AFP.

Iceland has topped the Global Peace Index ranking since 2008 thanks to its low crime, strong education and welfare systems, fair pay and an absence of tension between social classes.

Only four people have been shot dead in more than two decades.

But four shootings have now taken place in a little over a year, one of which was fatal.

In February 2021, a man was gunned down in a hail of bullets outside his home in a neighbourhood of the capital Reykjavik, a murder that shocked the nation.

The killing was linked to organised crime, police said.

"Criminal groups in Iceland are becoming more organised," said criminologist Margret Valdimarsdottir.

"They have more ties to international groups than what we've seen before, which may be a challenge for our police force." In February, two separate drug-related shootings took place in Reykjavik two days apart, one in the city centre.

The gang violence is similar to that already seen in other parts of Europe.

"It takes five to 10 years for what is trending in Europe to show up in Iceland," said Runolfur Thorhallsson, superintendent of Iceland's elite police unit, known as the Viking Squad.

"Of course this is a concern for us."