A seating area at Deichman in Bjørvika, on an entirely ordinary afternoon. Suddenly, a side table is swung through the air and strikes a boy directly in the head.
He falls to the ground, curls up and tries to shield his face with his arms. It does little good. Several people throw themselves at him, kicks and blows raining down on his head before they disappear out the door.
This is how one of more than 300 incident reports recorded at the country’s most visited cultural institution from March 2024 to April this year is described, according to figures to which Avisa Oslo has been granted access.
– Deichman library is Oslo. What happens in Oslo comes through our doors, says chief safety representative Lise Gundersen.
Cleaners regularly find drugs in the toilets, including hashish in the children’s section in the middle of the day. In April 2024, two boys aged 15 and 17 beat up two Ukrainian refugees of the same age after the victims refused either to buy hashish or to be threatened into doing so. The perpetrators have since been convicted. Other incidents in the log describe threats of rape, spitting on the floor and an employee being pushed on the escalator.
Worst of all are the deaths. Eighteen-year-old Maria Izabela Nygård died of what police believe was an overdose, in a disabled toilet in the basement. Her mother has said that her daughter often went to the library to take drugs and buy narcotics. Fifty-six people died of overdoses in Oslo in 2024, according to the Norwegian Directorate of Health.
What is happening at Deichman is neither random nor isolated. It is a symptom of a broader and well-documented development on Oslo’s streets. Oslo Police District’s own review of young repeat offenders has shown that 77 per cent of the city’s most active young criminals have an immigrant background. A separate police report from 2023 went even further: 86 per cent of the most active young criminals have backgrounds in Muslim countries with strong tribal cultures.
Recent figures from Oslo Police District for the first half of 2026 show that the number of reported cases of grievous bodily harm and more serious offences has risen by 24 per cent compared with the same period last year. At the same time, police point to a growing trend of so-called “violence as a commodity”, in which children as young as 13 are recruited digitally via Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram to carry out violent assignments for payment.
The library nevertheless has a low threshold for who is allowed in.
– We generally never say no to anyone who comes through the door, and we make few demands of the patrons who come in, says union representative Jenny Dellegård.
Library director Merete Lie rejects the idea that the solution is to restrict the service or cut opening hours.
– Our assessment is that the solution is not to reduce access to the library. On the contrary, it is important to preserve open, safe and inclusive libraries for the city’s residents, she says.
