- Lil Nas X and tourists stopped by Norwegian police for riding e-scooters in Oslo tunnel
- Authorities close tunnel temporarily but no riders detained
- Lil Nas X shares incident on Instagram, jokes with police officers
Pop star Lil Nas X was purportedly among four Americans stopped by Norwegian police for riding e-scooters through a major Oslo tunnel by mistake.
After the incident, authorities momentarily closed the six-lane Festning Tunnel, but no riders were detained.
Monday evening, the tourists got lost after following a GPS route into the tunnel.
They made an apology. “We have escorted them out,” the authorities announced. They did not corroborate whether or not Lil Nas X was in attendance.
The rapper, however, uploaded photographs of the incident to his Instagram story.
“About to go to jail in Norway,” he captioned a photo captured within the tunnel.
In a subsequent photograph, he posed with two police officers, joking that he had been released because they were admirers.
The tunnel’s operations manager, Vidar Pedersen, subsequently described the incident to the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet.
The police were contacted as soon as the scooters were observed entering the tunnel, and after reviewing CCTV footage, they approached the riders.
Pedersen stated, “At one point, they also crossed the street, only to realize it wasn’t such a good idea.”
Then, we dispatched two police patrols and led them to the waterfront quay.
No arrests were made.
Lil Nas X, whose actual name is Montero Lamar Hill, will perform at the Slottsffell festival in Norway on Wednesday.
Recently, he appeared at Glastonbury, sharing the Pyramid Stage with Elton John.
The rapper, who became an overnight phenomenon in 2019 with the song Old Town Road, appeared at Elton’s request after the star referred to him as a “fresh air hurricane.”
In addition to his smashes, including That’s What I Want, Industry Baby, and Montero (Call Me By Your Name), his performance was visually stunning and sexually charged.
In addition to numerous costume changes, the star was surrounded by dozens of dancers, a gigantic metal snake, and a large furry horse, but there were no e-scooters.
The 24-year-old is not the first tourist to become trapped in one of Norway’s intricate and crowded tunnel systems.
A man who claimed to have followed a Google Maps route penetrated the nearly 10-mile-long Opera Tunnel complex in 2019. He was neither indicted nor detained.
