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At Least 87 Dead After Norway Explosion, Shooting Rampage (with video)
At Least 87 Dead After Norway Explosion, Shooting Rampage (with video)
Authorities in Norway say at least 87 people are dead after a huge explosion attributed to one or more car bombs struck the heart of the capital, Oslo, and a gunman attacked a youth camp outside the city. Police say the two incidents are related.
The explosion killed at least seven people while police now say 80 people were killed in the gun attack on the nearby island of Utoya, dramatically raising the death toll from earlier figures.
Police chief Oystein Maeland said the attack had reached "catastrophic dimensions."
The incidents are being called the generally peaceful country’s worst violence since World War II.
A group calling itself "The Helpers of the Global Jihad" has allegedly claimed responsibility for the bombing, but authorities have not confirmed the authenticity of the claim.
Norwegian television TV2, however, said the sole detained suspect had links to right-wing extremists.
In aftermath of the attacks, Norwegian army troops took up positions around central Oslo and police urged people to stay out of the city center. Bomb experts also scoured the island where the shooting occurred to look for any explosives, as hundreds were being evacuated.
Acting Oslo Police Chief Sveinung Sponheim later told reporters that undetonated explosives had been found on the island.
Chaos In Oslo
The epicenter of the explosion in the capital was a high-rise office building that housed the office of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and his administration.
Video of the scene broadcast on Norwegian television showed most of the windows of the building had been blown out. The bottom floor appeared to be completely gutted. Shattered glass and debris littered a square in front of the building.
Other buildings damaged house government offices and the headquarters of some of Norway's leading newspapers.
Stoltenberg was working at home at the time of the blast, around 1530 local time, and was not injured. In remarks to public television, he said the attack was "very serious" but that it was too early to say if the explosion was the work of terrorists. He said he had called a crisis meeting of his Labor Party government tonight.
At a press conference hours later, the prime minister vowed to bring the perpetrator of the attacks to justice without commenting on potential motives.
“Nobody is going to bomb us into silence,” he said.
"The answer to violence is more democracy, more humanity, but not more naïveté.”
Shortly after the explosion, Oslo police said it caused by "one or more" bombs.
As smoke from the explosion billowed over the street, people evacuated office buildings with shattered windows. Some needed assistance to walk and others had bloody head wounds. Broadcast video showed crowds running down the street through a twisted debris field.
Public broadcaster NRK showed video of a blackened car lying on its side amid the wreckage.
Shooting Spree
As police were still sealing off central Oslo, a gunman dressed in a police uniform opened fire at a youth camp hosted by the governing Labour Party on an island outside the city.
Acting Police Chief Sponheim told broadcaster NRK that investigators suspect the Oslo explosion and camp shooting are linked.
Labor Party spokesman Per Gunnar Dahl told the AP that five people were hit as panicked youth tried to swim off the island during the attack.
The suspected gunman was later arrested.
Authorities said the suspect is Norwegian.
A witness to the Oslo explosion told the AP that he was standing at a bus stop about 100 meters from the building that contained the prime minister's office when the attack occurred.
"We were about 50 meters from where the explosion happened, and it was pretty unreal, it was like slow motion, it was just a big wave that almost knocked us off our chairs," said U.S. tourist Nick Soubiea, who described what happened to CNN.
"There was just a big black smoke in the air. And everybody just stood still and had no idea what was going on, and it was extremely frightening."
The offices of Norway's largest newspaper, "Verdens Gang," were also damaged in the blast. At one point, police sealed off the offices of broadcaster TV 2 after discovering a suspicious package.
In 2010, the Oslo daily newspaper "Dagbladet" published a cartoon showing the Prophet Muhammad as a pig writing the Quran. In response, around 2,500 people held a street protest to call for a boycott of the newspaper.
Authorities in nearby Denmark say they have foiled several terror plots linked to the 2005 newspaper publication of similar cartoons, which triggered violent protests in Muslim countries.
Last week, a Norwegian prosecutor filed terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening Norwegian politicians with death if he is deported from the country.
Mullah Krekar, who founded the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, made the statements to several media outlets, including America's NBC television network.
Norway has also worked to contain several home-grown terror plots linked to Al-Qaeda.
Norway has around 500 troops serving in Afghanistan's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and is also participating in the NATO mission to drive Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi from power.
International Condemnation
In Washington, a State Department spokeswoman condemned the attack as "despicable" and President Barack Obama said the United States was standing by to provide support to Norway.
"I wanted to personally extend my condolences to the people of Norway, and it's a reminder that the entire international community has a stake in preventing this kind of terror from occurring, and that we have to work cooperatively together both on intelligence and in terms of prevention of these kinds of horrible attacks," Obama said.
The European Union, the United Nations, and NATO all condemned the attack, with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen calling it "heinous act."
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso expressed his "utmost shock" and said an attack of this magnitude was not "something one would expect in Norway, famously associated with peace at home and peacemaking abroad."
compiled from agency reports
