Bomb blast and shooting in Norway! - TheNewTopical.com - current events, politics, culture, ethics, economics discussion forum

FredFredson · #1 (**permalink**) 22-07-11, 07:19 PM

Norway attacks

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Eyewitness Ingunn Anderson says she saw injured people lying on the ground

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A massive bomb blast has hit government buildings in the Norwegian capital Oslo, killing at least seven people and injuring several others.
PM Jens Stoltenberg described the situation as "very serious".
The bomb was followed by a fatal shooting incident near Oslo at a youth meeting of the Labour Party, which Mr Stoltenberg leads.
Norwegian media said at least four people were killed when a man opened fire indiscriminately.
Police said the suspected gunman had been arrested, TV2 reported.
No group has said they carried out the attacks but police say they believe them to be linked.
Hours after the bomb struck Oslo, officials said some people were still inside the damaged buildings, some of which were on fire.
Television footage from the government quarter showed rubble and glass from shattered windows in the streets and smoke from the fires drifting across the city. The wreckage of at least one car could be seen.
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Oslo blast: Your pictures

All roads into the city centre have been closed, said national broadcaster NRK, and security officials evacuated people from the area, fearing another blast.
Mr Stoltenberg, in a telephone call to Norwegian television, said all government ministers were safe.
He said he had been advised by police not to reveal his current location, but is not thought to have been in central Oslo on Friday.
"Even if one is well prepared, it is always rather dramatic when something like this happens," he said.
Egil Vrekke, Assistant Chief Constable of Oslo police told the BBC the rescue operation was ongoing.
"We are issuing warnings just [to] make sure people are not in the area in case there are further explosions," he told the BBC.
"We have cordoned off large areas. There are bomb experts at the scene investigating whether there are other devices in the area."
A spokesman for Oslo University hospital said 10 people had been taken there for treatment, some with serious injuries.
A few hours after the explosion, reports emerged of the shooting at a Labour Party youth camp in Utoeya, an island outside the capital.
TV2 said at least four people had been killed and several injured - there were reports a gunman was wearing a police uniform.
"This created a panic situation where people started to swim from the island" said Labour Party spokesman Per Gunnar Dahl.
Mr Stoltenberg, who had been due to visit the camp on Saturday, told TV2 the situation in Utoeya was critical.
'Focus on rescue' State Secretary Kristian Amundsen said Friday was a public holiday in Norway so the government offices were not as busy as they might usually have been.

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Assistant Chief Constable Egil Vrekke: "There are a lot of casualties"

"But there are many hundreds of people in these buildings every day," he told the BBC.
"We have to focus on the rescue operation - there are still people in the building, there are still people in the hospital."
Reuters said the oil ministry was among the other government buildings hit, while NRK journalist Ingunn Andersen said the headquarters of tabloid newspaper VG were also damaged.
"It's complete chaos here. The windows are blown out in all the buildings close by," she told AP.
Oistein Mjarum, head of communications for the Norwegian Red Cross, which has offices nearby, said the blast could be heard across Oslo.
"This is a very busy area on Friday afternoon and there were a lot of people in the streets, and many people working in these buildings that are now burning," he said.
Local resident Silvio told the BBC the blast shook everything in his apartment and that he saw several unconscious people in the street.
"If they were dead or not I wouldn't be able to tell you but they were receiving assistance at the time."
Mr Mjarum said people across Oslo and Norway were in shock.
"We have never had a terrorist attack like this in Norway - if that's what it is - but of course this has been a great fear for all Norwegians when they have seen what has been happening around the world."
The United States has condemned the "despicable acts of violence" in Oslo, while the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, said he was "deeply shocked" by "these acts of cowardice for which there is no justification".

FredFredson · #2 (**permalink**) 22-07-11, 07:20 PM

Live updates on BBC

BBC News - Oslo bomb - latest updates

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FredFredson · #3 (**permalink**) 22-07-11, 07:23 PM

Aljazeera coverage is ongoing:

‪AlJazeeraEnglish's Channel‬&rlm; - YouTube

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FredFredson · #4 (**permalink**) 22-07-11, 07:25 PM

Seven dead as bomb rocks Norway; several shot at youth camp

Oslo— Reuters and The Associated Press

Published Friday, Jul. 22, 2011 9:57AM EDT <h5 class="articledateline sans sm">Last updated Friday, Jul. 22, 2011 2:20PM EDT

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Terrorism ravaged long-peaceful Norway on Friday when a powerful bomb ripped through several buildings, including the prime minister's office, and a man dressed as a police officer opened fire at a nearby island youth camp.
Seven people were killed in the bomb blast in central Oslo, the nation's worst attack since World War II. Local media reported fatalities at the camp, but police would not confirm any deaths.

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Explosion rocks Oslo government offices

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Pictures, video and tweets from the Norway attacks

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Striking images of the explosion at Norway's government headquarters

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A man wearing a police uniform opened fire at youths during the annual gathering of the government’s Labour Party youth section at Utøya, an island outside Oslo, spokesman Per Gunnar Dahl said. Unconfirmed reports suggested five people were shot.
Panicked teenagers tried to escape the gunfire by swimming to the mainland, he said. Some 700 people, mostly between the ages of 14 and 18, were attending the camp.
Police said they feared there might be explosives at the camp.
“There is a critical situation at Utøya,” Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told independent TV2. His calendar showed that he had been due to make a speech at the meeting on Saturday.
Former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland had been due to attend the gathering on Friday.
Inspector Bjoern Erik Sem-Jacobsen said a suspect in the shooting has been arrested.
Police said they suspect the youth camp shootings are linked to the bombing in Oslo.
Apparently in fear of more attacks, police advised people to evacuate central Oslo. Soldiers were spotted taking positions in the downtown area.
The explosion blew out most windows on the 17-storey building housing Mr. Stoltenberg’s office, as well as nearby ministries, including the oil ministry, which was on fire. Heavy debris littered the streets and smoke rose over the city centre.
Mr. Stoltenberg, who was said to have been working at home when the blast occurred, said all cabinet ministers in the centre-left coalition government seemed to be safe.
“This is very serious,” he told Norwegian TV2 television by phone. He said that police had advised him not to say where he was speaking from.
Asked if the blast was caused by a car bomb, Oslo police chief Anstein Gjengdal said: "It is possible that a vehicle has been used in this incident, but we can't confirm this." Local television showed images of the blackened, tangled wreckage of a car lying on its side amid the debris.
He said police sealed off the office of Norwegian broadcaster TV2 to investigate a suspicious package there.
Hans Kristian Amundsen, a Norwegian government official, earlier told the BBC that "there are still people in the buildings" at the blast site.
In addition to the seven fatalities, Oslo police said two people had been seriously wounded.
Below: YouTube playlist of videos from Oslo, mobile users can also click here

The square where the bomb exploded was covered in twisted metal and shattered glass, and carpeted in documents expelled from the surrounding buildings, which also house the headquarters of some of Norway's leading newspapers.
Witness Ole Tommy Pedersen was standing at a nearby bus stop around 3:30 p.m. local time when he saw the blast shatter almost all the windows of a 20-floor highrise. He said a cloud of smoke was billowing from the bottom floors.
“I saw three or four injured people being carried out of the building a few minutes later,” Mr. Pedersen told The Associated Press.
Nearby offices were evacuated, including those housing some of Norway's leading newspapers and news agency NTB.
"It exploded – it must have been a bomb. People ran in panic and ran. I counted at least 10 injured people," said Kjersti Vedun, who was leaving the area.
An AP reporter who was in the NTB office said the building shook from the blast and all employees evacuated the building as the alarm went off. He saw one person with a bleeding leg being led away from the area.
The government building houses the prime minister's office and his administration. Several ministries are in surrounding buildings.
NATO member Norway has sometimes in the past been threatened by leaders of al-Qaeda for its involvement in Afghanistan. It has also taken part the NATO bombing of Libya, where Muammar Gaddafi has threatened to strike back in Europe.
However, political violence is virtually unknown in the country.
David Lea, Western Europe analyst, at Control Risks said: “It’s very difficult to tell what has happened. There certainly aren’t any domestic Norwegian terrorist groups although there have been some al-Qaeda-linked arrests from time to time.
“They are in Afghanistan and were involved in Libya, but it’s far too soon to draw any conclusions.”
The blast comes as the Scandinavian country has grappled with a series of homegrown terror plots linked to al-Qaeda, and six years after an uproar over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in neighboring Denmark.
Last week, a Norwegian prosecutor filed terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening Norwegian politicians with death if he's deported from the Nordic country.
The indictment centered on statements that Mullah Krekar — the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam — made to various media, including American network NBC.
Danish authorities say they have foiled several terror plots linked to the 2005 newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that triggered protests in Muslim countries.
Last month, a Danish appeals court on Wednesday sentenced a Somali man to 10 years in prison for breaking into the home of a cartoonist who caricatured the Prophet Muhammad.
With a report from Jill Mahoney

FredFredson · #5 (**permalink**) 22-07-11, 07:35 PM

Wikipedia info
2011 Oslo attacks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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FredFredson · #6 (**permalink**) 23-07-11, 03:02 PM

Scores killed in Norway attacks

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Adrian Pracon says he played dead to try to avoid the gunman on Utoeya

Continue reading the main story Norway Attacks

At least 85 people died when a gunman opened fire at an island youth camp in Norway, hours after a bombing in the capital Oslo killed seven, police say.
Police have charged a 32-year-old Norwegian man over both attacks.
The man dressed as a police officer was arrested on tiny Utoeya island after an hour-long shooting spree.
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said many people were still looking for their children and had not so far been able to locate them.
He was speaking after meeting victims and relatives with Norway's King Harald, Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon in the town of Sundvollen near the island.
Continue reading the main story “Start Quote

He first shot people on the island - afterward he started shooting people in the water”

End Quote Youth delegate

Mr Stoltenberg said he was "deeply touched" by the meetings. "We will do whatever we can to give them as much support as possible," he said.
Earlier he said that he was due to have been on Utoeya - "a youth paradise turned into a hell" - a few hours after the attack took place.
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.
Police say they are investigating whether the attacks were the work of one man or whether others helped.
"At Utoeya, the water is still being searched for more victims," deputy police chief Roger Andresen told reporters.
"We have no more information than... what has been found on [his] own websites, which is that it goes towards the right and that it is, so to speak, Christian fundamentalist."
Continue reading the main story At the scene

Richard Galpin BBC News, near Utoeya
A search is going on not just on the island itself, but also in the waters around it because a lot of people tried to escape by jumping in the water and trying to swim away. Even as they did that, eyewitnesses say, the gunman opened fire on them.
The chatter now is that it took the police an hour, if not an hour and a half, to actually get to the island. Of course that gave the gunman so much time to kill so many people.
Also crucially, the police were throwing all their resources at the huge bomb attack which had just taken place in the centre of Oslo.
But still, the question will be asked: Were there not police nearer to this area who could have moved in much more quickly?

Local media report that police are investigating claims by witnesses that a second person was involved, apparently not disguised in a police uniform.
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.
'Posed as policeman' 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.
Continue reading the main story Island shooting suspect

Describes himself as a Christian and conservative on Facebook page attributed to him
Grew up in Oslo and attended Oslo School of Management
Set up farm through which he would have had access to fertiliser - which can also be used to make a bomb

Profile: Anders Behring Breivik

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 around the island.
The gunman is reported to have been armed with a handgun, an automatic weapon and a shotgun.
"He travelled on the ferry boat from the mainland over to that little inland island posing as a police officer, saying he was there to do research in connection with the bomb blasts," NRK journalist Ole Torp told the BBC.
"He asked people to gather round and then he started shooting, so these young people fled into the bushes and woods and some even swam off the island to get to safety."
One 15-year-old eyewitness described how she saw what she thought was a police officer open fire.
"He first shot people on the island. Afterward he started shooting people in the water," youth camp delegate Elise told Associated Press.

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Witness Daniel Cherubini says it was "absolute chaos" in Oslo following Friday's bombing

'Despicable violence' Continue reading the main story Deadly shootings worldwide

July 2011: At least 84 killed at a summer camp on the Norwegian island of Utoeya, hours after bomb blast in capital Oslo
April 2007: Seung-Hui Cho, 23, kills 32 people and himself on Virginia Tech campus in the US
April 2002: Robert Steinhaeuser, 19, kills 16 people before killing himself in Erfurt, Germany
April 1999: Students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, open fire at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado killing 13 people before taking their own lives
April 1996: Martin Bryant, 29, kills 35 people in the seaside resort of Port Arthur in Tasmania, Australia
March 1996: Thomas Hamilton, 43, kills 16 children and their teacher in a school in Dunblane, Scotland - before killing himself

In Oslo, government officials urged people to stay at home and avoid central areas of the city.
Shards of twisted metal, rubble and glass littered the streets of central Oslo left devastated by Friday's enormous explosion.
Windows in the buildings of the government quarter were shattered and witnesses described how smoke filled the atmosphere around the blast site.
The BBC's John Sopel in Oslo says there is a heavy military presence, with checkpoints around the quarter.
Mr Stoltenberg said civil servants were among the dead in Oslo and he knew some of those killed.
There are also concerns that more victims may still be inside buildings hit by the initial massive explosion.

Emergency services have had difficulty accessing these buildings, amid concerns about further possible explosions as well as fears the blast may have left buildings unstable.