Take a moment to absorb the fact that, until now, police in Iceland had never killed anyone.

A 59 year-old guy in Reykjavik was firing a shotgun in his apartment in the early hours of Monday morning. That was his first bad move.

The police were alerted, and 15 to 20 officers were soon on the scene.

The police fired tear-gas canisters into the flat – to no avail.

But when police entered the building, the man began shooting at them. Special forces were ordered as back up, as the man continued firing his shotgun without any semblance of a surrender.

Two members of the special forces were injured by shotgun fire – one in the face, the other in the hand. That’s when the police shot back. He soon died in hospital, and the motive for his rampage remains unclear.

“Police regret this incident and would like to extend their condolences to the family of the man,” Icelandic police chief Haraldur Johannessen told reporters.

He said that the incident was “without precedent” in Iceland.

[Source : BBC News]