A security guard in the Norwegian government building struck by a car bomb that killed eight people, detonated by mass killer Anders Breivik, told a court today he had just put a security camera on the number plate when it exploded.
Tor Inge Kristoffersen described the scene in central Oslo as a "war zone" as he gave evidence in the trial of Breivik who has confessed to the bombing and a subsequent shooting massacre that left 69 dead at a political youth camp.
Mr Kristoffersen, who was working in the basement of the building, said he and a colleague used security cameras to get a closer look at the number plate so that they could find out more about the vehicle.
He says "the moment we had zoomed in on the plate the car exploded."
Breivik has given a detailed account of his car bomb attack at government headquarters in Oslo, which killed eight people and a subsequent massacre at a Labour Party island camp where he killed 69 people, mostly teenagers, all within a few hours on July 22nd.
Most Norwegians have reacted with contained horror to the content of Breivik's testimony, delivered in a cold, matter of fact manner, while there is wide public acceptance of his right as a defendant to give it.
Breivik has denied criminal guilt, insisting that his victims were "traitors" whose multiculturalist views facilitated what he saw as a de facto Muslim invasion of Europe.
But yesterday he issued his first apparent apology, to innocent bystanders hurt or killed when his 950kg fertiliser bomb detonated in the Norwegian capital. More than 200 were injured. "To all of those . . . I want to say I am deeply sorry for what happened," he said. "But what happened, happened."
Agencies