The suspected gunman accused of an attempted terrorist attack at a mosque in Norway has appeared in court with two black eyes.

Philip Manshaus, 21, is also alleged to have killed his teenage stepsister before targeting the Al-Noor Islamic Centre in the Oslo suburb of Baerum.

His facial bruising is said to have been sustained in the desperate fight inside the mosque in which 65-year-old worshipper Mohamed Rafiq managed to disarm the assailant as he begun to fire his weapon.

Mr Manshaus – who smiled during the hearing – did not speak in court but his lawyer Unni Fries told reporters later that “he will use his right not to explain himself for now”.

Following the attack on Saturday, police said Mr Manshaus had hoped to kill with reports suggesting he had entered the building with at least two rifles and wearing body armour.

When officers later raided his nearby home, they found the body of his 17-year-old stepsister, who he is suspected of murdering beforehand.

In other developments on Monday, the head of Norway’s domestic security agency said officials had received a “vague” tip off a year ago about the suspect, but that it had not been sufficient to act because they were given no “concrete plans” of an attack.

Hans Sverre Sjovold, head of Norway’s PST agency, told a news conference that his organisation received many tips every day and that, in this case, the information “didn’t go in the direction of an imminent terror planning”.

The suspect’s lawyer declined to comment on Norwegian media speculation that Mr Manshaus was inspired by New Zealand mosque terrorist attack where a gunman killed 51 people in March.

Reports suggest that the would-be terrorist wrote online that he had been “chosen” by the Christchurch gunman to carry out his own atrocity.

Prosecutors have now asked for him to be held on terror charges for four weeks.

Prime minister Erna Solberg called the attempted attack a “direct attack on Norwegian Muslims”.