The right-wing leader in Oslo, Eirik Lae Solberg, believes that criminals are about to take control of the district of Grønland.

He directs very strong criticism at the current city council.

In practice, drug sales are rife. The police have warned that criminal drug gangs are about to take control of the area, he says to Klassekampen.

Grønland has long been Oslo’s most notorious marketplace for the sale of drugs. On Tuesday, shots were fired in a street in the district. This example is just the latest in a long series of violent incidents in the inner east of Oslo.

Solberg, who could become Oslo’s city council leader in three months, believes the current red-green city council has failed Grønland. He refers to the fact that the city council said no to the plans to establish a food market in Grønland in 2020.

I am strongly critical of the fact that the city council has not followed up on this more actively. The best thing to reduce crime is for ordinary people to be in Grønland, so it is stupid that the plans for a food centre did not come to fruition. It’s nice to have a bandstand, but more is needed, says Solberg.

City councillor Raymond Johansen (Ap) calls the situation in Grønland “deeply serious and unacceptable”. On Friday, he will meet the police and other affected parties in a crisis meeting about the situation.

We cannot accept that so much of the city is being used by criminals, asserts Johansen.