FILE – American Lil Nas X plays on the Orange Stage at the Roskilde Festival on June 29, 2023. Four Americans, reportedly including rapper Lil Nas X, were briefly stopped by police after they rode through an Oslo tunnel with three others on electric scooters, leading authorities to briefly close the tunnel. None were charged or detained. (1.1 mile) downtown Oslo tunnel late Monday July 10, 2023. (Helle Arensbak/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Police in Norway’s capital briefly stopped four Americans who rode through an Oslo tunnel on electric scooters, and a Norwegian newspaper said one of them was rapper Lil Nas X.
Authorities briefly closed the Festning tunnel, but none of the scooter riders were detained or charged.
The tourists had followed a GPS route into the 1.8-kilometer (1.1 mile) downtown tunnel late Monday, police said. The four “used large parts of the roadway,” so a road traffic center had to shut down some lanes, police said.
“They apologized. We have escorted them out,” the police department said on Twitter.
Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet reported Tuesday that Lil Nas X, whose real name is Montero Lamar Hill, was one of the four tourists.
The musician is in Oslo to perform at the outdoor Slottsffell festival nearby on Wednesday.
It was not the first time that a foreign tourist rode through part of a vast and busy tunnel system in the center of the Norwegian capital on an electric scooter. In 2019, a man who said he followed a route given by Google Maps entered the nearly 16-kilometer (10-mile) long Opera Tunnel complex. He was not charged or detained.