An appeals court in Norway has increased the prison sentence of a man who stole an ambulance and tried to run over several pedestrians.
The 34-year-old suspect was convicted on seven counts of attempted murder last May and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Two young children were injured when they were struck by the ambulance in Oslo in October 2019.
The suspect pleaded guilty to drug possession, making threats with a firearm and possession of a weapon in a public place but denied accusations of attempted murder and making threats against police officers.
He had appealed against the sentence, but the Borgarting appeals court upheld his conviction and sentenced him to another year in prison.
Norwegian media has nicknamed the man “the ambulance hijacker” but his identity has not been formally revealed by authorities.
The 34-year-old was found to have pointed a weapon at police officers before stealing the ambulance and speeding through Norway’s capital with police cars in pursuit.
Two seven-month-old twins were injured, though not seriously when the man drove onto the pavement and hit their pushchair. An elderly couple had dodged the vehicle by diving under a parked car.
Police shot at the tires and eventually stopped the ambulance by ramming the vehicle.
The man said in court that he did not intend to kill anyone by driving recklessly but needed to transport 50 litres of liquid narcotics to cancel a 50,000 kroner (€5,100) drug debt, according to Norwegian media.
