NORWAY SUFFERED the worst attack in its postwar history yesterday as terrorists bombed Oslo’s central government district and opened fire at a political youth camp on an island near the capital.
At least seven people were reported killed and scores injured in the city centre. Last night Oslo deputy police chief Sveining Sponheim said 10 people had been killed in a shooting on Utoya island, northwest of Oslo. The death toll is expected to rise.
Police confirmed that a man arrested last night in connection with the shootings was a 32-year-old Norwegian.
It was reported that the gunman was dressed as a policeman when he carried out the attacks. Police also said they believed the man had knowledge of the bomb blast, and that a man fitting his description had been seen near the scene of the explosion.
Late last night police were searching the island and the government quarter in the city for unexploded devices.
No Irish citizens were killed in the explosion despite its close proximity to the Irish Embassy in the Regjeringskvartalet area, or government quarter, of the city.
A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman said the Irish Embassy in Norway had contacted all the Irish citizens it has registered as working and living in Oslo city centre. Some 300 Irish citizens are resident in Oslo. The Irish Ambassador to Norway, Gerald Ansboro, is in Oslo and in contact with the authorities. “We have no indication at all that any Irish person has been injured,” he told RTÉ. “We have looked after several Irish tourists who have been unable to get back into their hotel and they’re all okay for the night.”
The Oslo blast damaged buildings and blew out windows over more than a kilometre radius. Emergency services were still assessing the scale of the attack, combing offices in the area in the search for more victims.
The detonation took place near the 17-storey government building where the prime minister has his offices and the headquarters of Norway’s biggest tabloid paper VG.
Witnesses said tables in the paper’s basement cafeteria were smeared with blood and scattered with glass and other debris. Residents were told to stay away from the town centre, or stay in their homes and hotel rooms.
In what Norwegian police said was a co-ordinated attack, about 700 youth members of the Labour party, some as young as 15, who were holding their annual summer camp on the island of Utoya, a lake west of Oslo, came under fire from a man dressed as a policeman and armed with an automatic weapon.
According to people at the event, some children escaped by climbing trees, hiding in bushes or swimming from the island.
The prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, who was due to attend the camp today, was working at home and was unharmed by the blast in the capital, as were the rest of the cabinet. Mr Stoltenberg appealed to Norwegians not to be cowed. “Co-workers have lost their lives today. It’s frightening,” he said. “That’s not how we want things in our country.”
US president Barack Obama said the attacks showed that “no country large or small” was immune to such violence. He said the bombing demonstrated the need for enhanced intelligence-sharing.
There has been growing unease in Norway that the country had little protection against such assaults, while exposing itself to terrorism through its military operations abroad. There was speculation yesterday’s attacks could be linked to Norway’s military involvement in Nato operations in Afghanistan, where it has 500 soldiers, or Libya, where Norwegian jet fighters are flying sorties.– (Guardian service)
Families here who are concerned for relatives living in or travelling to Norway can contact the Department of Foreign Affairs on its main number: 01-4780822.