Updated News: Norway Confirms 93 Killed in Youth Camp and Downtown Oslo | Photos | Videos | Eyewitness Reports

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-24/norway-shooting-survivors-ask-why-us/28077...

Click on link to watch video of some of the surviving children

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ABC News...

Norway massacre survivors ask 'why us?'
Europe correspondent Philip Williams, wires

Updated July 24, 2011 09:54:44

Survivors of a shooting massacre in Norway have been telling extraordinary stories of how they escaped the gunman who opened fire at a youth camp.

At least 85 people died in the Utoya island massacre and seven more were killed in an earlier car bomb explosion which ripped through government buildings in Oslo.

Norwegian national Anders Behring Breivik, 32, has been charged in relation to the attacks.

With the death toll rising, there are still fears over four people who are missing.

Key details:

92 dead, may rise to 98
Ring-wing Christian extremist charged
His farm searched for explosives
Possibility of a second gunman

The exhausted teenage survivors were brought to the Sundvolden Hotel, just a few kilometres from Utoya island.

Many left, avoiding journalists waiting behind a tight police cordon.

But others remained, consoling each other and speaking about their ordeal, as rescue workers continued the grim task of recovering bodies of those shot while escaping in the waters to the north-west of Oslo.

One survivor said he saw the man dressed as a policeman lure people out of hiding saying help had arrived, only to shoot them when they revealed themselves.

Another survivor said the gunman also had small homemade bombs he was throwing at people as he went.

It has been confirmed the suspect Behring Breivik purchased six tonnes of fertiliser in May.

Police say there are still explosives inside Oslo city buildings and that some bodies have not been removed because the buildings are too unsafe.

A visibly shaken Miriam Einangs, 17, said that out of solidarity, the teens who managed to escape or hide on the island had agreed not to tell the worst of what they had seen.

"I have heard stories about people swimming over the lake, people hiding under stones and almost being shot at so there are some terrible stories," she said.

"We have agreed in our groups that we won't talk about the most terrible because it goes only in media. It's too hard. We must remember that we were just 14-18 most of us and this will take a long time to come off."

Another survivor said that six of his friends were on the island when the attack happened. He was going to attend, but decided to do his summer job instead.

"Three of my friends are OK. Three are still missing. Everyone here is doing a good job, but I can't find my friends. I tried to ask the police but they're always busy," he said.

Jahn Petter Berentsen of the Norwegian Red Cross said many of the teenagers were happy to have survived.

"Now most people [left] are those who have lost some of their closest so its difficult, there's lots of emotion and we are just here to be a hand to hold," he said.

The teenagers are receiving counselling from the Red Cross, psychologists and priests, as the already tight community comes closer together.

"Today they are very quiet and very full of sorrow, yesterday they were in shock," said Torunn Aschim, a Norwegian Church vicar from the nearby town of Honefoss who is working in shifts with other vicars to comfort the bereaved.

"There were 700 young people here full of shock and they had experienced bad thing and seen many comrades die."

She says that the children simply do not understand how anyone could commit such violence.

"They ask 'how can a man do that, come out onto an island and shoot at children and young people, how can you manage that?' They find it sick. We never know why people do these things but it's sick and it's bad.

"Now I'm going home, I have a sermon tomorrow. I will pray for them, I don't think I will preach but I will take them with me in prayer."

The Dean of Oslo Cathedral says the community is deeply shocked.

"All of us are emotionally upset about this situation. That one person can do so much damage, that's a problem, I think," he said.

"This church, the Cathedral of Oslo, is open every day and some nights, and a lot of people, also Muslims, are coming into there during the week as well."

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http://euobserver.com/9/32654

EUObserver...

Norway massacre shocks Europe

Police believe the Utoeya gunman was behind the bomb blast in central Oslo (Photo: Francesco Rivetti)

VALENTINA POP

23.07.2011 @ 14:59 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU politicians on Saturday (23 July) expressed their horror and outrage at the death of at least 84 youngsters shot on the Norwegian island of Utoeya by a gunman allegedly also responsible for the blast in central Oslo that killed another 8 people.

"It is with great horror that I have learned about further attacks at Utoeya island in Norway that claimed lives of many young people," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Saturday in a statement.

"The European Union strongly condemns the attacks and stands ready to support Norway in this time of sorrow," she added.

The massacre of Utoeya unfolded on Friday afternoon, just hours after a bomb blast rocked the governmental district of Oslo. A gunman dressed up in police uniform rounded up teenagers gathered for a political summer camp of the Labour Party and started randomly shooting at them with a machine gun.

"This is an unimaginable tragedy for the families who lost their loved ones, young people at the outset of their adult life, fascinated with public service. It is a terrible tragedy for all of Norway and the world. It's shocking how one can inflict so much evil," European Parliament chief Jerzy Buzek said.

According to Norwegian police, the gunman is a 32-year old Norwegian, whose name has not been officially confirmed. He has been arrested and is also charged with the Oslo bombing that has claimed eight lives. If found guilty, the man faces a maximum prison sentence of 21 years.

In a televised address on Friday night, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said this was "a national tragedy" and the worst act of violence in Norway since World War II.

Stoltenberg, who chairs the Labour Party, had been due to address the youth camp at the Utoeya island later on Saturday. "For me, Utoeya was the paradise of my youth, now it has become hell," the politician said.

Police were still searching the waters of the lake near Oslo where Utoeya lies on Saturday morning, as many youngsters jumped off the cliffs and tried to swim to the mainland in the mass panic that unfolded when the gunman started shooting.

Eye witnesses at Utoeya told local media that the suspect had "deliberately targeted" people and that some of them tried hiding behind rocks or bushes, hoping not to be detected.

Oslo police deputy chief Roger Andresen said that the suspect had links to the far right and had expressed extremist and anti-Islamist views on some sites on the internet, but had not given any motive for his deeds.

Norway's VG newspaper cited a Twitter account set up by the suspect a week before the attack citing British philosopher John Stuart Mill: "One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests."

Later on Saturday, police said they were also investigating reports that a second man might have been involved in the shooting on Utoeya island.

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http://boston.com/community/blogs/crime_punishment/2011/07/norway_massacre_fits_...

Boston dot com...

Norway massacre fits the mold
Posted by James Alan Fox, Crime and Punishment July 23, 2011 06:00 PM

As details surface in the days and weeks ahead about Friday's massacre in Norway and about Anders Behring Breivik, the man believed to have perpetrated the bloodbath, we will hopefully be able to make some sense of what now seems so unfathomable. However, even with the sketchy information uncovered in the immediate aftermath of the shooting/bombing, the crime and the accused fit the mass murder mold in many respects.

My Northeastern University colleague Jack Levin and I have studied countless mass killings over the past three decades. Certain characteristics are seen time and time again:

Mass killers do not just suddenly snap and go berserk. Rather these crimes are well-planned, methodical executions. Although there may be warning signs, including angry threats vocalized or uploaded, they unfortunately do not become clear until after the deadly fact.
The victims are not usually selected at random. Rather, those targeted are perceived, rightly or wrongly, to be responsible for the killer's misfortune or unhappiness. The victims can be blamed personally, or just as members of a group against which the killer has some deep-seated grudge. The defining characteristic for victims can be based on race, gender, religion, lifestyle or politics.In addition, victims are occasionally innocent proxies purposely targeted to avenge the perceived enemy.
Most mass killers do not fit the common stereotype of a crazed madman. They may be mad in terms of their angry mindset, but not in terms of some psychotic view of the world.
Almost be definition, mass murderers are well trained and comfortable with their chosen weapon of mass destruction. Guns are usually preferred, as bombs can be less predictable.
The media has focused on the Norwegian suspect's interest in violent entertainment. A mass killer's attraction generally reflects a personality type having strong identification with power, but not a cause of the will to kill.
The perpetrators of mass murder often blend in rather well, appearing extraordinarily ordinary at least superficially. It is not uncommon for neighbors and acquaintances to describe them as a "regular guy."
Mass murderers do not typically see themselves as criminal, but instead as the victim of injustice. They often consider themselves as a heroic champion for right over wrong and their crimes as absolutely justified.
Finally, mass murderers tend to be socially isolated, either living alone or just not particularly connected with others. If it happens that the man accused of the Norway massacre had collected most of his "friends" through his Facebook page, i would not be surprised.

These are some early observations of yesterday's tragedy that devastated the entire nation of Norway, if not the world. It will be important to learn as much as we can about the accused and his possible motivation. At the same time, however, the police and the media must avoid inadvertently turning him into a celebrity or, worse, an icon for similarly-minded extremists.

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http://www.latimes.com/media/alternatethumbnails/photo/2011-07/63461314-23150542...

Oslo, on the 23rd of July 2011

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/07/23/norway.camp.youth/index.html?hpt=hp_t...

HOW LABOUR PARTY'S PARADISE IN UTOYA TURNED TO HELL

How Labour Party's paradise in Utoya turned to 'hell'
By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN
July 23, 2011 12:03 p.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: The Norwegian Red Cross is trying to help parents who don't know whether their children are alive
PM Jens Stoltenberg: "There are many heroes during these last hours"
Utoya has been used by the Labour Party's youth wing for summer gatherings for decades
Panicked teenagers tried to swim to safety or hide in the woods as a gunman went on the rampage

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It has been a traditional camp where young people have met and discussed politics.
--Per Gunnar Dahl, Labour Party political adviser

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(CNN) -- On a rural island some 20 miles from Norway's capital, hundreds of young members of the country's Labour Party gathered each summer to discuss politics and democracy and enjoy each other's company.

Utoya island, which can only be reached by boat, has been used by the Labour Party for its youth conference for decades, as well as a destination for family camping trips.

All that changed Friday when a gunman dressed as a policeman went on a shooting rampage there, leaving at least 85 confirmed dead and many wounded of the roughly 600 people who'd been attending the camp -- most of them teenagers.

Survivors of the attack told of running terrified through the tiny island's wooded areas, seeking a place to hide as the sound of gunshots rang out for well over an hour.

Some tried to swim some 700 meters to safety on the opposite shore, Adrian Pracon, who was shot in the shoulder by the man, told CNN from a hospital in Norway.

He was forced to turn back to Utoya after realizing he was exhausted and could not swim that far fully clothed. The gunman was waiting on the shore.

"I was maybe 5 meters, maybe 7 meters away from him and he was yelling he was going to kill us all and we are going to die," Pracon said. "Then people started running around because they didn't know where to run."

While the initial shots had been met with confusion and disbelief, he said -- especially as the man had claimed to be from the police -- that mood quickly turned to panic.

"People were thinking, 'how can this happen at a summer camp in Norway?'"

Now, as police divers undertake the grim search for bodies in the waters off the island, many will be asking the question: why did this happen here -- and was the Labour Party the target?

The summer gatherings in Utoya for the party's youth wing, the Workers' Youth League, or AUF, have been part of a vibrant political tradition in the country since at least the 1970s, and enjoyed by many of those now in government.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, himself a former AUF leader and Labour Party leader since 2002, was supposed to have attended the gathering in Utoya Saturday -- and had been to the island every summer since 1974.

He told reporters the situation was even more painful because many of those who died had been friends and people he had known for many years -- and that he was devastated see a "paradise of my youth turned into hell" in the space of a few hours.

"This is a place where I spent a lot of time as a young person, where I was politically active, where I started out on a political career. We have to regain this. Nobody's going to take this away from us."

But asked if the Labour Party itself was a target, the prime minister said it was too early to comment on the motives behind the attacks on the island and in the capital, Oslo, where government buildings were hit by a huge explosion shortly beforehand. Seven people died and at least 90 were wounded, authorities said.

Speaking after meeting survivors of the attacks and victims' families, Stoltenberg said he had heard dramatic accounts from some of the young people who had escaped the island massacre.

One boy told how he swam to shore helping another who had been injured, the prime minister said. "In other words, he saved his friend's life as well his own. He is a hero and there are many heroes during these last hours."

Sven Mollekleiv, president of the Norwegian Red Cross, told CNN it was doing its best to support those affected by the tragedy at Utoya.

"We have now also mothers and fathers who don't know if their sons or daughters are alive. They are just waiting. And it's very important for our volunteers, trained people, to be there to talk to them," he said.

Per Gunnar Dahl, a political adviser for the Labour Party, told CNN the shooting was "a huge tragedy" for the organization.

"We are all deeply shocked and in deep, deep mourning for all the young people who have been both witnesses to this shooting and who were killed in this shooting and all the relatives of these young people," he said.

"It has been a traditional camp where young people have met and discussed politics and many, many of our leaders have participated on Utoya for many years.

"Some of the brightest and best politicians Norway has brought up have been a part of that island and the history of that island, since the camps have gone back for so many years."

Labour Party member Bjorn Jarle Roberg-Larsen told CNN the vast majority of the youth movement attendees were between the ages of 16 and 22, though some were as young as 13 and others as old as their early 30s.

They had been planning to attend political training classes and participate in group activities during the day and sleep in tents at night, he said.

The summer camp was an institution for the Labour Party's young followers, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store told CNN.

"The kids that have gone there have been looking forward to it, qualifying for it," he said. "It has been about politics and joy."

This turned into a "terrible, terrible moment" for the young people there Friday, he said.

Speaking to reporters later, Store added: "I think what we have seen today is that politically motivated violence poses a threat to society and I commend the police for carrying out a very swift and effective investigation, but that is still ongoing."

Despite the attack, Eskil Pedersen, leader of the Norwegian Labour youth movement, said the camp will persevere.

"Our summer camp has always been a great event. Many people have learned so much and gotten many friends. Then we were struck by tragedy. We will continue to work hard (for) our organization in memory of those we lost," Pederson told reporters Saturday.

Norway's prime minister echoed that message after meeting with survivors of the Utoya attack.

"They say the best way in which we can honor those who have lost their lives is to carry on being politically active," Stoltenberg said.

"We must take control of Utoya and show that young people can be engaged, that young people are interested in society and debating politics, and show that those people who want to scare us will not win."

CNN's Diana Magnay contributed to this report.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-norway-attacks-20110724,0,3...

Los Angeles Times...

Norway survivors describe fleeing 'calm and controlled' gunman; death toll hits 92

Police begin searching two apartments owned by Anders Behring Breivik, 32, who is accused of setting off the Oslo bomb and shooting dozens at a youth camp. Survivors recall a gunman with both a handgun and machine gun who shot campers trying to flee.

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By Edmund Sanders and Janet Stobart Los Angeles Times

July 23, 2011, 7:43 a.m.

Norwegian police said Saturday that the death toll from Friday's attacks has risen to 92 and confirmed that they have arrested a suspect whom they described as a right-wing Christian fundamentalist.

In a news conference Saturday morning in Oslo, police confirmed that they had arrested Anders Behring Breivik, 32, on suspicion of orchestrating both the Oslo bombing and the youth-camp shooting rampage and had begun searching two apartments that he owns.

Breivik reportedly owns four properties including a farm on the outskirts of Oslo, allegedly to enable him to store legally a large amount of fertilizer.

Police would not comment on whether he acted alone but said no other arrests have been made. They said Breivik had no criminal record.

They would not speculate on his motives, but said, based own his own Twitter and Facebook accounts, he appeared to be a right-wing Christian fundamentalist.

Police say he was arrested by security forces at the Labor Party youth camp on the island of Utoya after the shootings. They said 84 people were killed on the island. At least seven were killed in the Oslo bombing.

Police Chief Oystein Maeland told reporters that they could not confirm the number of victims would stop at 92, adding that the attack had reached "catastrophic dimensions."

He said officers were still "looking in the water around the island for more victims."

Media reports say the gunman apparently used a handgun and a machine gun, and that police arrived at the island possibly 90 minutes after the shooting started. At midmorning Saturday, police were still searching the island for more bodies.

One wounded survivor, Adrian Pracon, described the gunman as "calm and controlled," shooting people who tried to escape the island by swimming to the mainland.

Pracon told BBC news that he saw two people approach the gunman, "and two seconds later they were both shot."

He said the gunman "looked like Nazi to me because of the hair ... and he was also very, very calm and controlled and sure about what he was doing."

Pracon described his attempt to escape. "We started running down to the water and people had already undressed and started swimming."

Pracon said he began swimming, but "after 150 meters ... I realized I wouldn't make it so I went back and saw him standing 10 meters from me shooting at the people who tried to swim over."

"He aimed the gun at me and I screamed at him 'No, please no.' I don't know if he listened to me."

Pracon said the gunman returned an hour later. "The shooting started and people were falling beside me, they were falling on top of me, falling injured into the water, so I just had to shield myself behind them and pray he wouldn't see me, and that's when he shot. I could feel his boots, I could feel the warmth of the barrel."

Others described being chased. "The man with the gun was running behind us, chasing us," said youth leader Lisa Marie Husby, who told BBC radio how she and 50 or 60 others ran to a cabin where she hid under a bed as the gunman shot through the door trying to get in.

When he went away, they heard more shooting: "I think I was under the bed for two to three hours, then we heard the helicopters and the police came."

Police said Breivik will face terrorism charges that carry a prison sentence of up to 21 years.

During a separate news conference, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said he had been personally involved in the Labor Party camp during his youth, and praised the fact that participants were able to exchange strong political views freely and without fear.

He called it a "childhood paradise" that "was turned into hell." He said he had been scheduled to visit the island today to address the youths.

Stoltenberg told reporters that some members of government had lost their lives in the bombing, but he could not confirm their identities. "We have a picture of the victims, but it is too early to say," he said.

He said Norwegians should not let the tragedy lead them to change their open society.

"It's this quality of life that has been abused and attacked. We must work hard to protect this so we don't lose that quality. This is what we have to resist."

He said the death toll was the highest in a single day in Norway since World War II.

Stoltenberg added that he will convene government ministers later today to discuss how to handle the crisis. Soldiers have been deployed throughout Oslo to assist police and protect government institutions.

He would not speculate on the suspect's motives, but said right-wing extremism has not been a serious issue before.

"Compared to other countries, I would not say that we have a big problem with right-wing extremism in Norway," he said. "But we have had some groups and we have followed them before."

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The Los Angeles Times...

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2011-07/63453133.jpg

GRIEF

( Jan Johannessen, AFP/Getty Images / July 23, 2011 )
People light candles and lay flowers in central Oslo to pay tribute to the victims of twin attacks at the government headquarters building in Oslo and on a youth camp, Norway's deadliest post-war tragedy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14262956

BBC...

23 July 2011 Last updated at 13:05 ET

Norway mourns twin attack victims

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Norwegians are mourning the victims of a massacre at an island youth camp and a bombing in the capital Oslo.

At least 85 people died when a gunman opened fire at the Utoeya camp on Friday, hours after a blast in the government quarter killed seven. Another four are missing on the island.

A 32-year-old Norwegian man was charged over both attacks, but police say it is possible another person was involved.

The suspect surrendered immediately and admitted using a weapon, police said.

Police chief Sveinung Sponheim said officers took 45 minutes to reach the island, and the gunman was apprehended 45 minutes after that.

Mr Sponheim added that there were still bodies or body parts in buildings damaged by the Oslo blast, which he confirmed was caused by a car bomb.

However, the buildings were currently too fragile and dangerous to search, and there were still undetonated explosives there, the police chief said.

It was possible the total death toll from the two attacks could rise to 98, he said.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg comforted victims and relatives alongside King Harald, Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon in the town of Sundvollen near the island.

Mr Stoltenberg said he was "deeply touched" by the meetings.

Thousands of people have come to the perimeter of the government quarter in downtown Oslo where the bomb went off on Friday. They have come to have a look at the destruction, lay flowers and many are just standing in silence. Churches across the city and the entire country have opened their doors and many are packed.

The area is still cordoned off and the army is manning many checkpoints - a sight never seen before in this normally peaceful city.

The downtown square which is overlooked by the now ruined building housing the PM's office would normally be crowded with people enjoying a drink and the sunshine - instead it is blocked off and the only people here are soldiers, police and those clearing the broken glass and rubble. It will be some time before this city gets back to some sort of normality.

King Harald said: "It's now important that we stand together and we support each other and we do not let fear conquer us."
Fertiliser used?

The suspect is reported by local media to have had links with right-wing extremists.

He has been named as Anders Behring Breivik. Police searched his Oslo apartment overnight and are questioning him.

The BBC's Richard Galpin, near the island which is currently cordoned off by police, says that Norway has had problems with neo-Nazi groups in the past but the assumption was that such groups had been largely eliminated and did not pose a significant threat.

Meanwhile a farm supply firm has confirmed selling six tonnes of fertiliser to Mr Breivik, who is reported to have run a farming company. Speculation has been rife that fertiliser could have been used in the Oslo bomb.

The number killed in the island shooting spree, which is among the world's most deadly, had been put at 10 on Friday - but soared overnight. Hundreds of young people had been attending the summer camp organised by the governing Labour Party on Utoeya island.

Eyewitnesses described how a tall, blond man dressed as a policeman opened fire indiscriminately, prompting camp attendees to jump into the water to try to escape the hail of bullets.

Some of the teenagers were shot at as they tried to swim to safety.

Armed police were deployed to the island but details of the operation to capture the suspect remain unclear. After his arrest he was charged with committing acts of terrorism.

Police say they discovered many more victims after searching the area around the island. They have warned the death toll may rise further as rescue teams continue to scour the waters.

The gunman is reported to have been armed with two weapons, one of them an automatic rifle.

NRK journalist Ole Torp told the BBC the suspect went to the island dressed in a police uniform, asked people to gather round and then started shooting.

The attacks sparked strong international condemnation, with US President Barack Obama expressing his condolences and offering support.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth spoke of her shock and sadness in a letter to King Harald.

The BBC's John Sopel in Oslo says the city is strangely quiet and there is a heavy military presence, with checkpoints around the government quarter.

Officials have urged people to stay at home and avoid central areas of the city.

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http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images/2011/7/22/20117221897531580_20.jpg

A Google map depicts Oslo's central district which was devastated by Friday's bomb blast

Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies

EXPOSED: Illuminati - Freemasons Secret Society Behind Norway Bombing and Shooting

http://www.ufo-blogger.com/2011/07/exposed-illuminati-freemasons-secret.html

The equivalent of a Teaparty member flipping out at a Camp Wellstone event. Automatic weapon again? Right wing neo-Christian? And dressed up as a cop? Chalk another one up for mistrust. Sick Sick world and it has to happen in one of the most peaceful left leaning countries. I wish I could help in some way. damn...........

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/europe/la-me-oslo-blast-slider,0,1...

Interactive
Oslo bombing, before and after

Click on photo. Then use the slider to compare the scene in Oslo in 2009 with the same area after a bomb exploded outside government buildings in the city center on July 22, 2011.

Before photo: Google; after photo: Fartein Rudjord / Associated Press

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/23/world/europe/23oslo.html?_r=1&hp

The New York Times...

July 22, 2011
At Least 87 Are Dead in Norway Shooting

By ELISA MALA and J. DAVID GOODMAN

OSLO — Norway suffered dual attacks on Friday when powerful explosions shook the government center here and, shortly after, a gunman stalked youths at an island summer camp for young members of the governing Labor Party. The police arrested a Norwegian in connection with both attacks, which killed at least 87 people and stunned this ordinarily placid nation.

The explosions, from one or more bombs, turned Oslo, a tidy Scandinavian capital, into a scene reminiscent of terrorist attacks in Beirut or Baghdad or Oklahoma City, panicking people and blowing out windows of several government buildings, including one housing the office of the Norwegian prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, who was unharmed.

The state television broadcaster, citing the police, said seven people had been killed and at least 15 wounded in the explosions, which they said appeared to be an act of domestic terrorism.

Even as the police locked down a large area of the city after the blasts, a man dressed as a police officer entered the youth camp on the island of Utoya, about 19 miles northwest of Oslo, a Norwegian security official said, and opened fire. “He said it was a routine check in connection with the terror attack in Oslo,” one witness told VG Nett, the Web site of a national newspaper.

At least 80 people were killed on the island, some as young as 16, the police said on national television early Saturday.

Terrified youths jumped into the water to escape. “Kids have started to swim in a panic, and Utoya is far from the mainland,” said Bjorn Jarle Roberg-Larsen, a Labor Party member who spoke by phone with teenagers on the island, which has no bridge to the mainland. “Others are hiding. Those I spoke with don’t want to talk more. They’re scared to death.”

Many could not flee in time.

After the shooting the police seized a 32-year-old Norwegian man on the island, according to the police and Justice Minister Knut Storberget. He was later identified as Anders Behring Breivik and was characterized by officials as a right-wing extremist.

The acting chief of police, Sveinung Sponheim, said Mr. Breivik, who is not known to have any ties to Islamic extremists, had also been seen in Oslo before the explosions. The police and other authorities declined to say what the suspect’s motivations might have been, but many speculated that the target was Mr. Stoltenberg’s liberal government.

“The police have every reason to believe there is a connection between the explosions and what happened at Utoya,” the police said. They said they later recovered explosives on the island.

Mr. Breivik had registered a farm-related business in Rena, in eastern Norway, which authorities said allowed him to order a large quantity of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, an ingredient that can be used to make explosives. Authorities were investigating whether the chemical may have been used in the bombing.

As the investigations continued, the police asked people to leave the center of Oslo, stay indoors and limit their cellphone use. They also said they would initiate border checks.

The attacks bewildered a nation better known for its active diplomacy and peacekeeping missions than as a target for extremists.

In Oslo, office workers and civil servants said that at least two blasts, which ripped through the cluster of modern office buildings around the central Einar Gerhardsen plaza, echoed across the city in quick succession around 3:20 p.m. local time. Giant clouds of light-colored smoke rose hundreds of feet as a fire burned in one of the damaged structures, a six-story office building that houses the Oil Ministry.

The force of the explosions blew out nearly every window in the 17-story office building across the street from the Oil Ministry, and the streets on each side were strewn with glass and debris. The police combed through the debris in search of clues.

Mr. Stoltenberg’s office is on the 16th floor in a towering rectangular block whose facade and lower floors were damaged. The Justice Ministry also has its offices in the building.

Norwegian authorities said they believed that a number of tourists were in the central district at the time of the explosion, and that the toll would surely have been higher if not for the fact that many Norwegians were on vacation and many more had left their offices early for the weekend.

“Luckily, it’s very empty,” said Stale Sandberg, who works in a government agency a few blocks down the street from the prime minister’s office.

After the explosions, the city filled with an unfamiliar sense of vulnerability. “We heard two loud bangs and then we saw this yellow smoke coming from the government buildings,” said Jeppe Bucher, 18, who works on a ferry boat less than a mile from the bomb site. “There was construction around there, so we thought it was a building being torn down.”

He added, “Of course I’m scared, because Norway is such a neutral country.”

American counterterrorism officials cautioned that Norway’s own homegrown extremists, with unknown grievances, could be responsible for the attacks.

Initial reports focused on the possibility of Islamic militants, in particular Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, or Helpers of the Global Jihad, cited by some analysts as claiming responsibility for the attacks. American officials said the group was previously unknown and might not even exist.

Still, there was ample reason for concern that terrorists might be responsible. In 2004 and again in 2008, the No. 2 leader of Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, who took over after the death of Osama bin Laden, threatened Norway because of its support of the American-led NATO military operation in Afghanistan.

Norway has about 550 soldiers and three medevac helicopters in northern Afghanistan, a Norwegian defense official said. The government has indicated that it will continue to support the Afghan operations as long as the alliance needs partners on the ground.

Terrorism specialists said that even if the authorities ultimately ruled out terrorism as the cause of Friday’s assaults, other kinds of groups or individuals were mimicking Al Qaeda’s signature brutality and multiple attacks.

“If it does turn out to be someone with more political motivations, it shows these groups are learning from what they see from Al Qaeda,” said Brian Fishman, a counterterrorism researcher at the New America Foundation in Washington. “One lesson I take away from this is that attacks, especially in the West, are going to move to automatic weapons.”

Muslim leaders in Norway swiftly condemned the attacks. “This is our homeland, this is my homeland,” said Mehtab Afsar, secretary general of the Islamic Council of Norway. “I condemn these attacks, and the Islamic Council of Norway condemns these attacks, whoever is behind them.”

Elisa Mala reported from Oslo, and J. David Goodman from New York. Reporting was contributed by Souad Mekhennet, Ravi Somaiya and Matthew Saltmarsh from London; Katrin Bennhold from Paris; and Eric Schmitt from Washington.

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ABC News...

VIDEO...

Norway Terror Attacks Toll Upped to 87: Norwegian Man Arrested

PHOTO: An aerial view of Utoya Island

Oslo, Norway, Bombing and Camp Shooting

By BRIAN ROSS (@brianross) , MARK SCHONE, JOSH HASKELL and ROBIN RESPAUT
July 22, 2011

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At least 87 people were killed in a shooting at a youth camp on the Norwegian island of Utoya the second of two attacks blamed on a Norwegian suspect authorities have not identified, police said.

Police confirmed that they had arrested a Norwegian man for the attack on a summer youth camp, and that they believed the same man was responsible for the bombing in central Oslo several hours earlier that claimed at least seven lives.

The 80 dead at the camp was a dramatic increase over an earlier police report that at least 10 had died at the youth camp. Police director Oystein Maeland told reporters many more victims were discovered between the two reports, according to The Associated Press.

With the arrest of a lone Norwegian in the twin bomb and shooting attacks today, officials have all but ruled out any connection to international terrorism.

"We have one person in custody and he will be charged in connection with what has happened," said Justice Minister Knut Storberget during a Friday evening press conference. "We know that he is Norwegian. That is what we know. I don't think it's right from my position to go into details about him."

TV2, Norway's largest broadcaster, later identified the suspect as Anders Behring Breivik, 32, describing him as a member of "right-wing extremist groups in eastern Norway." Norwegian police would not confirm the identity of the suspect.

During the same press conference where Storberget spoke, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told reporters that it was "too early to say anything certain about the motive." Justice Minister Storberget said he was not aware of any threats before the two attacks.

Police said that the incidents did not appear to have international connotations, but that the borders of the country were closed.

The man in custody allegedly opened fire at a summer youth camp run by the Labour Party, the political party of both Stoltenberg and Storberget, just hours after explosions ripped through a government building holding Stoltenberg's office in the capital city of Oslo. According to media reports the suspect had been seen in Oslo earlier in the day. Oslo is 45 minutes from the island of Utoya.

More than 500 people were attending the camp, and most campers were teenagers.

A local police spokesman confirmed to al Jazeera that the suspect had been dressed as a police officer and had said he was at the camp to provide security. Explosives were found on the island after the assault.

Twenty ambulances and four air ambulances were dispatched to the island to pick up the wounded. Some of the campers at the island jumped into the water to attempt to swim to safety.

Stoltenberg was uninjured in the Oslo bombing. He was scheduled to visit the youth camp tomorrow.

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PHOTO: An aerial view of Utoya Island
Mapaid, Lasse Tur/AP Photo

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/22/blast-rips-through-norways-capital-injuries...

CNN...

At least 87 dead after pair of attacks in Norway; suspect in custody

July 22nd, 2011
10:20 PM ET

[Update: 10:20 p.m. ET, 4:20 a.m. Oslo] At least 80 people are dead as a result of a rampage Friday on Norway's Utoya Island, police said Saturday.

Norwegian authorities say the attack, which occurred at the ruling Labour Party's youth camp on an island outside the capital, was linked to a bombing earlier Friday in the heart of Oslo.

The death toll from the bombing still stands at 7, Norwegian Police spokesman Are Frykholm told CNN.

A 32-year-old Norwegian man is in custody, he said.

"For now we have arrested one person and he is being held in custody and we are investigating further based on information we're getting from him," he said.

Q&A: Why Norway?

[Update: 8:15 p.m. ET, 2:15 a.m. Oslo] The scene after a bomb exploded in the center of Oslo on Friday reminded New Yorker Ian Dutton of what he witnessed after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

The scale of the Oslo explosion was smaller than that of 9/11, but the stunned feeling and confusion in the aftermath were eerily similar.

"Seeing the emergency response gives me that same feeling in my spine of being in someone's crosshairs," Dutton said.

Read more witness accounts of the blast in Oslo

[Update: 6:54 p.m. ET, 12:54 a.m. Oslo]The official death toll as a result of Friday's explosion in Oslo stands at 7 and 90 people have been hospitalized, a spokesman for the city's mayor said.

Police have finished searching damaged buildings for dead and injured, spokesman Erik Hansen said. One of the city government's chief concerns overnight is finding shelter for the numerous elderly people whose homes were damaged in the blast, Hansen said.

[Update: 5:40 p.m. ET, 11:40 p.m. Oslo] Undetonated explosives were found on Utoya Island, where a gunman opened fire earlier in the day on a Labour Party Youth Camp, Oslo, Norway, acting Police Chief Sveinung Sponheim said late Friday night.

Authorities believe the man traveled to the island from Oslo, where at least seven were killed in a bombing in the city center. The suspect, a 32-year-old Norwegian, was taken into custody after he killed or wounded an unknown number of people, Sponheim said.

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http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Norway+death+toll+soars/5147430/story.html

Montreal Gazette...

Norway death toll soars to 87

By Walter Gibbs and Alister Doyle, Reuters July 22, 2011 10:36 PM

PHOTO:
A wounded woman is brought ashore opposite Utaoya island (in the distance) after being rescued from a gunman who went on a killing rampage targeting participants in a Norwegian Labour Party youth organisation event on the island, some 40 km southwest of Oslo, on July 22 , 2011

Photograph by: Svein Gustav Wilhelmsen, AFP/Getty Images

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OSLO - A gunman dressed in police uniform opened fire at a youth camp of Norway's ruling political party on Friday, killing at least 80 people, hours after a bomb killed seven in the government district in the capital Oslo.

"The updated knowledge we are sitting on now is at least 80," police chief Oystein Maeland told a news conference.

"We can't guarantee that won't increase somewhat," he said.

Witnesses said the gunman, identified by police as a a 32-year-old Norwegian, moved across the small, wooded Utoeya holiday island firing at random as young people scattered in fear. Norwegian television TV2 said the gunman, described as tall and blond, had links to right-wing extremism.

It was the biggest attack in Western Europe since the 2004 Madrid train bombings that killed 191.

"I just saw people jumping into the water, about 50 people swimming towards the shore. People were crying, shaking, they were terrified," said Anita Lien, 42, who lives by Tyrifjord lake, a few hundred metres (yards) from Utoeya island, northwest of Oslo.

"They were so young, between 14 and 19 years old."

Many sought shelter in buildings as shots echoed across the island, ran into the woods or tried to swim to safety. Boats searched for survivors into the night, searchlights sweeping the coast. Helicopters flew overhead.

Survivor Jorgen Benone, who was on the island at the time, said: "I saw people being shot. I tried to sit as quietly as possible. I was hiding behind some stones. I saw him once, just 20, 30 metres away from me. I thought 'I'm terrified for my life', I thought of all the people I love."

Police seized the gunman, who they believed was also linked to the bombing, and later found undetonated explosives on the island, a pine-clad strip of land about 500 metres long, to the northwest of Oslo.

The bomb, which shook the city centre in mid-afternoon, blew out the windows of the prime minister's building and damaged the finance and oil ministry buildings. Stoltenberg was not in the building at the time.

"People ran in panic," said bystander Kjersti Vedun.

With police advising people to evacuate central Oslo, and some soldiers taking up positions on the streets, the usually sleepy capital was gripped by fear of fresh attacks. Streets were strewn with shattered masonry, glass and twisted steel.

"It is the most violent event to strike Norway since World War Two," said Geir Bekkevold, an opposition parliamentarian for the Christian Peoples Party.

"I have a message to the one who attacked us and those who were behind this," Prime Minister Stoltenberg said in a televised news conference. "No one will bomb us to silence, no one will shoot us to silence."

He declined to speculate on who had been involved.

NUPI Senior Research Fellow Jakub Godzimirski said he suspected a right-winger, rather than any Islamist group. Right wing groups have grown up in Norway and elsewhere in northern Europe around the issue of immigration.

"It would be very odd for Islamists to have a local political angle. The attack on the Labour youth meeting suggests it's something else. If Islamists wanted to attack, they could have set off a bomb in a nearby shopping mall rather than a remote island."

Right-wing militancy has generated sporadic attacks in other countries, including the United States. In 1995, 168 people were killed when Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck bomb at a federal building in Oklahoma City.

Deputy Oslo police chief Sveining Sponheim told reporters that the gunman in the Utoeya shootings had been disguised in a blue police-style uniform but had never been a police officer.

Police searched a flat in west Oslo where the man lived, and evacuated some neighbours.

NATO member Norway has been the target of threats before over its involvement in conflicts in Afghanistan and Libya.

Violence or the threat of it has already come to the other Nordic states: a botched bomb attack took place in the Swedish capital Stockholm last December and the bomber was killed.

Denmark has received repeated threats after a newspaper published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in late 2005, angering Muslims worldwide.

In Oslo, the building of a publisher which recently put out a translation of a Danish book on the cartoon controversy was also affected, but was apparently not the target.

The Oslo district attacked is the very heart of power in Norway. Nevertheless, security is not tight in a country unused to such violence and better known for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize and mediating in conflicts, including the Middle East and Sri Lanka.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Norway+death+toll+soars/5147430/story.html#i...

http://www.freep.com/article/20110722/NEWS07/110722051/Police-least-80-killed-No...

Detroit Free Press...

PHOTO:

In this photo taken by Vergard M. Aas, a Norwegian crime reporter who responded to the scene of a mass shooting on Utoya Island, Norway, victims lie near the shoreline approximately one hour after police say a man dressed as a police officer gunned down youths as they ran and even swam for their lives at a camp which was organized by the youth wing of the ruling Labor Party, Friday July 22, 2011. Police say the suspect in this shooting set off a fatal explosion hours earlier in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. (AP Photo/Presse 3.0, Vegard M. Aas) / VEGARD M. AAS/AP

Aleksander Andersen/AP

PART ONE...

OSLO, Norway — Police say at least 80 people were killed in a shooting spree at the youth camp of Norway's Labor Party.

Police director Oystein Maeland told reporters early Saturday they had discovered many more victims after initially reporting the death toll at 10.

Maeland couldn't say how many people were injured in the shooting.

Hundreds of youth were attending the summer camp organized by the youth wing of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's Labor Party on the island of Utoya.

Police also say seven people were killed in an explosion in Oslo.

Earlier in the day, acting Police Chief Sveinung Sponheim says a man was arrested in the shooting, and the suspect had been observed in Oslo before the explosion there.

Sponheim said police were still trying to get an overview of the camp shooting and could not say whether there was more than one shooter.

Aerial images broadcast by Norway’s TV2 showed members of a SWAT team dressed in black arriving at the island in boats and running up the dock. Behind them, people stripped down to their underwear swam away from the island toward shore, some using flotation devices.

In Oslo, the capital and the city where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded, the bombing left a square covered in twisted metal, shattered glass and documents expelled from surrounding buildings.

Most of the windows in the 20-floor high-rise where Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and his administration work were shattered. Other buildings damaged house government offices and the headquarters of some of Norway’s leading newspapers.

Stoltenberg was working at home Friday and was unharmed, according to senior adviser Oivind Ostang.

Oslo University Hospital said 12 people were admitted for treatment following the Utoya shooting, and 11 people were taken there from the explosion in Oslo. The hospital asked people to donate blood.

The attacks formed the deadliest day of terror in Western Europe since the 2005 London bombings, which killed 52 people.

Sponheim wouldn’t give any details about the shooting suspect, who he said was dressed in a police uniform when he opened fire into a crowd of youths.

A spokesman for Stoltenberg’s Labor Party, Per Gunnar Dahl, said he couldn’t confirm that there were fatalities at Utoya, about 60 miles northwest of Oslo. The party’s youth wing organizes an annual summer camp on the island, and Stoltenberg had been scheduled to speak there Saturday.

“There are at least five people who have been seriously wounded and have been transported to a local hospital,” Dahl said. He said the shooting “created a panic situation where people started to swim from the island” to escape.

Police blocked off roads leading to the lake around Utoya. An AP reporter was turned away by police about 5-6 kilometers from the lake, as eight ambulances with sirens blaring entered the area.

In Oslo, police said the explosion was caused by “one or more” bombs, but declined to speculate on who was behind the attack. They later sealed off the nearby offices of broadcaster TV 2 after discovering a suspicious package.

Ian Dutton, who was in a nearby hotel, said the building “shook as if it had been struck by lightning or an earthquake.” He looked outside and saw “a wall of debris and smoke.”

Dutton, who is from New York, said the scene reminded him of Sept. 11 — people “just covered in rubble” walking through “a fog of debris.”

“It wasn’t any sort of a panic,” he said, “It was really just people in disbelief and shock, especially in a such as safe and open country as Norway, you don’t even think something like that is possible.”

CONTINUED...

http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/la-fg-oslo-blast14.jpg

Oslo, Norway

Twin attacks rock Norway, at least 80 dead

By Henry Chu
Los Angeles Times...

An explosion rips open buildings, including the prime minister's office, and a man dressed as a police officer opens fire at a youth camp outside Oslo.

http://www.latimes.com/media/alternatethumbnails/photo/2011-07/63445647-22184719...