Christian terrorists killed 91 people

Europe

Scores killed in twin attacks in Norway

At least 91 people killed after gunman opens fire at a youth camp in Utoya island, following bomb blast in central Oslo.

Last Modified: 22 Jul 2011 23:21

Hundreds of young people were attending the summer camp in Utoya organised by the ruling Labour party [AFP]

At least 84 people have been killed in a shooting at Utoya island, nearly two hours after a bomb blast killed seven people in the government district in the capital Oslo.

A gunman dressed in police uniform opened fire at a youth summer camp in Utoya.

Oslo police are questioning a 32-year-old Norwegian who was arrested in connection with the shooting incident on Friday.

Police say the suspect had been seen in Oslo before the bombing, which targeted buildings that house the prime minister's office.

Norway's public broadcaster, NRK, named the bombing and shooting suspect as Anders Behring Breivik.

A police official said that information gleaned on the internet suggested the suspect was a "Christian fundamentalist".

The TV2 television station reported, without disclosing its sources, that the detained man had links to right-wing extremism. He was described as a tall blonde man.

Police searched a flat in west Oslo where the man lived, and evacuated some neighbours.

In a press conference held in Oslo on Saturday, Jens Stoltenberg, the Norwegian prime minister, said the country had awoken to "a nightmare" and described the shooting in Utayo as "a youth paradise turned into a hell".

He said: "The police have just started the investigations, and one man is arrested.

"We will wait before we comment on the possible political motives for such attacks. We will do our best to bring those responsible to justice.

"We appreciate the very strong international support we have received. Countries have expressed the will to help with intelligence and how we can exchange information to assist us," Stoltenberg said.

The prime minister, who was not in his office at the time of the blast, said some members of the government died in the Oslo bomb attack.

People shot in water

"The updated knowledge we are sitting on now is at least 80," police chief Oystein Maeland said of the attack in Utoya.


Norway's state television named Anders Breivik as the suspect for the bombing and shooting

"We can't guarantee that [number] won't increase somewhat," he added, saying that some of the wounded were badly injured.

Maeland said the attack in Utoya, is a massacre of "catastrophic dimensions".

Hundreds of young people were attending the summer camp organised by the ruling Labour party.

Al Jazeera's Harry Smith said that Stoltenberg was due to address the camp attendees on Saturday.

Eyewitnesses described how a man dressed as a policeman opened fire indiscriminately, causing campers to jump into the water and try to escape the bullets.

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 the AP news agency.

Police say undetonated explosives were also found on the island.

'People screaming'

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either of the attacks. Anti-terrorism police were deployed to restore order.


Al Jazeera's Imran Khan reports on the attacks on Utoya [Note: Some images may disturb viewers]


"I saw young people running around, jumping into the water," Kristine Melby, who lives across the narrow channel on the Norwegian mainland, told Al Jazeera. "We heard people screaming."

The explosion in the Norwegian capital, which took place at 3:20pm local time, blew out most of the windows of a 17-storey building housing Stoltenberg's office in the city centre.

It also damaged nearby ministries, including the finance and oil ministry, which was on fire.

Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull described Oslo as a city "mostly shut down [and] extremely quiet".

"One gets the sense that it is really vastly changed in character [after the attacks]," he said.

"The bars are closed; the restaurants are closed; not many people are about on what would have been a busy Friday."

He said there were many unanswered questions "chief among them, of course, why Norway? Why this happened?"

Earlier, Peter Svaar, a journalist working for NRK, said "the whole of downtown Oslo is sealed off" and spoke of a "very chaotic situation".

'Massive damage'

Hanne Taalsen, a journalist working for TV2, told Al Jazeera the blast caused "massive damage in the streets" around the government buildings.

The TV station's building was later cordoned off amid reports that there was a suspicious package inside.

Newspaper offices in the area were also damaged and smoke could be seen drifting in the streets.

"People are really surprised. I am very surprised. People are shocked that this could happen in Oslo," Taalsen told Al Jazeera.

"People are quite calm, they are not running around or anything. But people are quite shocked. I think most Norwegians consider themselves to be outside of incidents like this."

Jakub Godzimirski, a senior research fellow at the Norwegian institute of International affairs, said the attacks were more likely the work of a right-winger than an Islamist group.

"It would be very odd for Islamists to have a local political angle. The attack on the Labour youth meeting suggests it's something else," he said.

"If Islamists wanted to attack, they could have set off a bomb in a nearby shopping mall rather than a remote island. "This attack has more in common with the Oklahoma City bombing than an Islamist attack."

Right-wing groups have generated sporadic attacks in other countries, including the United States. In 1995, 168 people were killed when Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck bomb at a federal building in Oklahoma City.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, PJ Crowley, the former US State Department spokesman, said: "It is possible you could have this kind of global agenda, if you will, but my first instinct is that perhaps this is just one or a small group of people that have a particular grievance against the Norwegian government."

A Google map depicts Oslo's central district which was devastated by Friday's bomb blast

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies / Minare Bulgaria