A women walks to get help after she is injured in the explosion in Oslo Photo: REX
A huge explosion in Oslo, Norway leaves seven dead, before a gunman opens fire at a youth camp west of Oslo, with unconfirmed reports of up to 30 dead.
Chris Irvine
Telegraph [UK]
22 Jul 2011
• Shooter is Norwegian, says Justice minister
• Seven dead in bomb blast in Oslo
• Police says at least nine killed in youth camp shooting
• Prime Minister had been due to attend rally there but pulled out
• One man arrested, believed to be connected to both incidents
• Concerned relatives should call 004723132700.
21.46 The Justice Minister added that seven people were killed in the bombings and 10 seriously injured. He said “several” youths were killed in the shooting and several more were missing. He urged to people to stay out of down town Oslo and to avoid using their mobiles.
21.24 Some footage of the scale of the destruction in Oslo
20.59 AP is now reporting that Oslo police say nine or 10 people were killed at the youth camp.
20.50 Jonas Gahr Store, the country’s foreign minister, is on BBC News. He says the young people on the island were 15-20 years old and are the country’s “finest”.
Norway is today dealing with a double attack on its democracy, its government buildings and its finest youth. There’s no more important task than for us to preserve these values and honour our young people.”
He says that he has been told the island shooter was Nordic and says that the government will continue to function despite the heavy damage to its administrative buildings in the capital.
20.47 Associated Press reports that police are saying there may have been more than one bomb involved in the Oslo explosion.
20.46 Oslo’s mayor Fabian Stang said that the capital was struggling to come to terms with the idea that it had joined the list of cities targeted by bombers.
“Today we think about those people living in New York and London who have experienced this kind of thing,” he told Sky News.
“Living without any sympthy for other people, for me, it’s impossible to understand.
“I do not think it is possible for us to understand what has happened today but hopefully we will be able to go on and that tomorrow Oslo will be a peaceful city again.”
20.39 Police are now confirming that at least nine people have been killed in the island shooting
20.34 Full statement from the Prime Minister:
I was outraged to hear about the explosion in Oslo and attack in Utoya today that have killed and injured innocent people.
“My thoughts are with the wounded and those who have lost friends and family, and I know everyone in Britain will feel the same.
“These attacks are a stark reminder of the threat we all face from terrorism.
“I have called Prime Minister Stoltenberg this evening to express my sincere condolences and to let him know that our thoughts are with the Norwegian people at this tragic time. I have offered Britain’s help, including through our close intelligence cooperation. We will work with Norway to hunt the murderers who did this and prevent any more innocent deaths.
“We can overcome this evil, and we will.”…
…19.48 Police have said they have “arrested the assailant, and we believe that he’s connected to both the bombings in Oslo and the shootings.”
19.47 An eyewitness has told Norwegian state broadcaster NRK that he saw 20 to 25 bodies at the youth camp.
Andre Scheie said: “There are very many dead by the shore… there are about 20-25 dead.
19.45 Emilie Bersaas, 19, who was on Utoya, said she had been hiding in fear under her bed, with a mattress barricading the door, for more than two hours as she head the gunman go on the rampage. Speaking to Sky News, she said:
The shooting was happening in all different directions.
I was hiding under my bed. It was terrifying. At one point the shooting was very close and I could hear the bullets hitting our building.
The people in the next room started screaming a lot. It worried me. There are a lot of people I don’t know about.
The police have told us to stay in this (other) building for the moment. I look forward to getting off the island.
19.42 The Telegraph’s Adrian Blomfield, normally our Middle East expert, but in London right now and helping us with the unfolding events in Norway, has spoken to Hadja Tajik, an MP with Norway’s ruling Labour party. She told him that some of those on the island were as young as 15. More than 600 youth activists attended this year’s annual summer camp she said. Miss Tajik was on the island this morning along with Gro Harlem Brundtland, with three-time former Labour prime minister. She was coming back with Ms Brundtland from Utoya when the Oslo bomb struck.
She confirmed reports some youngsters leap into the fjord and tried to swim to safety, while others hid behind bushes…
The coverage continues at the Telegraph.
Update: Zilla of the Resistance has a list of bloggers covering today’s terrorism, Jihad in Norway.
Oslo, Norway has suffered a horrendous jihad bombing and there was also a shooting by someone dressed as a cop at a youth camp in Norway today.
Blazing Cat Fur has extensive coverage & video as well as links to live feeds from Oslo. Also at BCF, someone dressed as a cop went on a shooting spree at a Norwegian youth camp.
Atlas, of course, is also covering it, providing lots of information photos.
Bare Naked Islam is all over this story as well (warning: GRAPHIC pictures at BNI) and some background about what may be reasons why muslims would want to commit jihad terror attacks in Norway…
Read the whole thing.
Update 2: Freedom’s Lighthouse has focused on the shootings at the island youth camp.
Update 3: Legal Insurrection, Norway – The Warning Signs Were There
…Europe is finally waking up to the threat posed by decades of policies which preached tolerance, yet bred the exact opposite: an intolerance by many immigrants, particularly Islamists, for the values of their new homelands.
She notes however that in Norway last summer, 3000 men “many of them in long coats, ankle-high baggy pants and full beards” gathered in the same place that “Nazi thug” Vidkun Quisling gathered in the 1930′s to denounce the Jews. The Islamists last summer explicitly denounced Western Civilization and threatened a new 9/11 on Norwegian soil…
Update 4: American Power reports the man in custody for these two attacks is Anders Behring Breivik and links to several articles including this:
6:55pm PST: London’s Daily Mail has this, “Police dismiss initial fears Norwegian terror attacks were work of Islamist organisations.” (At Memeorandum.)
The Jawa Report, Terror in Norway: 87 Dead; Jihadi claims credit (Not so Fast)…Suspect is 32 yr old Norwegian-Anders Behring Breivik; Unexploded Bombs Found
