"Now any big sound makes me feel jumpy," said the 15-year-old, who was with her friends at a makeshift memorial in the centre of Kongsberg.
They have been traumatised after resident Espen Andersen Brathen went on a killing spree on Wednesday with a bow and arrow and reportedly another weapon.
Five people were killed and three others injured, including an off-duty police officer.The suspect, a Danish Muslim convert, has reportedly confessed to the crime, the worst attack in Norway since far-right extremist Anders Breivik massacred 77 people a decade ago.
"I heard the helicopters circling and my heart sank," said Oda Hjelle. "Many young people like to be outside and I was worried about friends and classmates - I couldn't think straight. Nobody could have expected this here of all places."
As this close-knit community of 25,000 people comes to terms with its heartbreak, it is also asking questions about how the attack unfolded - and why the suspect was not stopped earlier, given that he had previously been flagged as a security risk over fears of his radicalisation. Although he was confronted by police within minutes of shooting arrows at Kongsberg's Co-op supermarket just after 18:00 on Wednesday, he's believed to have unleased more volleys in their direction, escaping while the police reportedly sought greater protection.
Norwegian police are not routinely armed, but they did get to the scene fast only to let him get away.It then took 34 minutes for him to be caught.That was the deadly period in which he killed four women and a man aged 50-70.
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