VM
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/europe/article3103286.ece
Quote:
The gunman who killed 91 people in the twin attacks on Norway yesterday tricked his way into an island summer camp by telling guards he was there to check security after the bomb attack in Oslo.
Then, after luring teenagers toward him by beckoning them to come closer, he attacked them with guns and ammunition, shooting many twice - once in the head - to make sure they were dead.
Simen Mortensen, a camp guard, said that Anders Behring Breivik had driven onto the island in a silver grey car, dressed as a policeman. “He gets out of the car and shows ID, says he’s sent there to check security, that that is purely routine in connection with the terror attack (in Oslo),” Mr Mortensen told the newspaper Verdens Gang.
Minutes later Breivik opened fire on the teenagers at the camp, killing at least 84 as they ran for cover or tried to swim to safety. The Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg had been due to speak at a forum on Utøya island today, and his children were understood to have been among the 560 young people staying at the camp, which is run by the ruling Labour party.
Shortly before the attack, Oslo was ripped apart by a device believed to be in a car parked outside Mr Stoltenberg’s office. Seven people died and ten were seriously injured, though Mr Stoltenberg was away at the time.
Breivik, 32, was arrested at the scene of the island shootings and was charged early this morning. His flat in western Oslo was being searched last night and there were reports that a man matching his description had been seen in the city centre before the blast, raising speculation that the same person carried out both attacks.
Early this morning the Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, appeared before a press conference to describe the attacks as a “national tragedy.” He said that Utøya, where he had spent many summers, was “my childhood paradise turned into hell” and promised that the government would do all it could to help those involved.
As police continue to question Breivik, a picture is emerging of an affluent and educated loner with links to right-wing extremists who worked as a geo-farmer and enjoyed hunting.
He recently claimed that politics today was not about socialism v capitalism but nationalism v internationalism. He argued on a Swedish news website that the media were not critical enough about Islam and claimed that Geert Wilders’s party in the Netherlands was the only “true” party of conservatives.
Survivors of the island attack described how Breivik lured campers to their death. Many were reassured by his policeman’s uniform and ran toward him when he beckoned, only to be killed.
Speaking in the village of Sundvollen, where the teenagers were taken after the massacre, Dana Berzingi said several victims “had pretended as if they were dead to survive.” But after shooting the victims with one gun, the gunman shot them again in the head with a shotgun, he said.
“I lost several friends,” said Mr Berzingi, whose pants were stained with blood.
Elise, 15, said she hid behind the same rock that the killer was standing on. “I could hear his breathing from the top of the rock,” she said. “He first shot people on the island. Afterward he started shooting people in the water,” she said.
Elise phoned her parents, describing the scene in whispers and they warned her to get rid of a brightly coloured jacket she was wearing so as not to draw attention to herself, she said.
Initial reports that 10 young people had died on Utøya were later dramatically revised upward, first to 80 and then 91 a figure which appears to bear out claims of eye witnesses that scores of bodies had been seen in the water near the camp at Utøya island, 25 miles northwest of Oslo.
“I have seen it with my own eyes, at least 20 dead people lying in the water,” said Andre Skeie, who went to the island on his boat to help people to escape.
Police chief Oystein Maeland told a news conference:”The updated knowledge we are sitting on now is at least 80. “We can’t guarantee that won’t increase somewhat,” he said.
A full search of the island for victims was hampered by the discovery of explosive devices. It was unclear whether the gunman had brought them with him, or whether they had been planted earlier — in an area where the Prime Minister was due to give a speech to the young political activists today.
“The answer to violence is more democracy, more humanity, but not more naivety,” said Mr Stoltenberg, in a defiant television appearance last night. “You will not destroy us. We are a small nation, but a proud nation. No one will reduce us to silence us with bombs. No one will stop Norway from being itself.”
An al-Qaeda website, the Shumkh Forum, had briefly claimed responsibility, demanding that European troops withdraw from Afghanistan, in a posting that was quickly removed. Another jihadist group also claimed responsibility later. Norway has 500 soldiers deployed in the north of Afghanistan.
David Cameron joined worldwide condemnation of the attacks. “I was outraged to hear about the explosion in Oslo and attack in Utøya today that have killed and injured innocent people,” he said. “These attacks are a stark reminder of the threat we all face from terrorism. We can overcome this evil, and we will.”
President Obama added: “This is a reminder that the entire international community has a stake in preventing this kind of terror.”
A police official said that the attack was Norway’s “Oklahoma City” rather than its “World Trade Centre”.
It was the biggest attack in Western Europe since the 2004 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 and the worst on Norwegian soil since the Second World War. The square in the government quarter where the bomb exploded was covered in twisted metal and shattered glass and carpeted in documents expelled from the surrounding buildings, which house government offices and the headquarters of some of Norway’s leading newspapers.
Most of the windows were shattered in the 20-storey block in Oslo where Mr Stoltenberg and his administration work. One witness, Ole Tommy Pedersen, who was standing 100 yards from a government building hit by the explosion, said: “I saw three or four injured people being carried out.” Another, Kjersti Vedun, said: “It exploded — it must have been a bomb. People ran in panic. I counted ten injured people.”
Then, after luring teenagers toward him by beckoning them to come closer, he attacked them with guns and ammunition, shooting many twice - once in the head - to make sure they were dead.
Simen Mortensen, a camp guard, said that Anders Behring Breivik had driven onto the island in a silver grey car, dressed as a policeman. “He gets out of the car and shows ID, says he’s sent there to check security, that that is purely routine in connection with the terror attack (in Oslo),” Mr Mortensen told the newspaper Verdens Gang.
Minutes later Breivik opened fire on the teenagers at the camp, killing at least 84 as they ran for cover or tried to swim to safety. The Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg had been due to speak at a forum on Utøya island today, and his children were understood to have been among the 560 young people staying at the camp, which is run by the ruling Labour party.
Shortly before the attack, Oslo was ripped apart by a device believed to be in a car parked outside Mr Stoltenberg’s office. Seven people died and ten were seriously injured, though Mr Stoltenberg was away at the time.
Breivik, 32, was arrested at the scene of the island shootings and was charged early this morning. His flat in western Oslo was being searched last night and there were reports that a man matching his description had been seen in the city centre before the blast, raising speculation that the same person carried out both attacks.
Early this morning the Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, appeared before a press conference to describe the attacks as a “national tragedy.” He said that Utøya, where he had spent many summers, was “my childhood paradise turned into hell” and promised that the government would do all it could to help those involved.
As police continue to question Breivik, a picture is emerging of an affluent and educated loner with links to right-wing extremists who worked as a geo-farmer and enjoyed hunting.
He recently claimed that politics today was not about socialism v capitalism but nationalism v internationalism. He argued on a Swedish news website that the media were not critical enough about Islam and claimed that Geert Wilders’s party in the Netherlands was the only “true” party of conservatives.
Survivors of the island attack described how Breivik lured campers to their death. Many were reassured by his policeman’s uniform and ran toward him when he beckoned, only to be killed.
Speaking in the village of Sundvollen, where the teenagers were taken after the massacre, Dana Berzingi said several victims “had pretended as if they were dead to survive.” But after shooting the victims with one gun, the gunman shot them again in the head with a shotgun, he said.
“I lost several friends,” said Mr Berzingi, whose pants were stained with blood.
Elise, 15, said she hid behind the same rock that the killer was standing on. “I could hear his breathing from the top of the rock,” she said. “He first shot people on the island. Afterward he started shooting people in the water,” she said.
Elise phoned her parents, describing the scene in whispers and they warned her to get rid of a brightly coloured jacket she was wearing so as not to draw attention to herself, she said.
Initial reports that 10 young people had died on Utøya were later dramatically revised upward, first to 80 and then 91 a figure which appears to bear out claims of eye witnesses that scores of bodies had been seen in the water near the camp at Utøya island, 25 miles northwest of Oslo.
“I have seen it with my own eyes, at least 20 dead people lying in the water,” said Andre Skeie, who went to the island on his boat to help people to escape.
Police chief Oystein Maeland told a news conference:”The updated knowledge we are sitting on now is at least 80. “We can’t guarantee that won’t increase somewhat,” he said.
A full search of the island for victims was hampered by the discovery of explosive devices. It was unclear whether the gunman had brought them with him, or whether they had been planted earlier — in an area where the Prime Minister was due to give a speech to the young political activists today.
“The answer to violence is more democracy, more humanity, but not more naivety,” said Mr Stoltenberg, in a defiant television appearance last night. “You will not destroy us. We are a small nation, but a proud nation. No one will reduce us to silence us with bombs. No one will stop Norway from being itself.”
An al-Qaeda website, the Shumkh Forum, had briefly claimed responsibility, demanding that European troops withdraw from Afghanistan, in a posting that was quickly removed. Another jihadist group also claimed responsibility later. Norway has 500 soldiers deployed in the north of Afghanistan.
David Cameron joined worldwide condemnation of the attacks. “I was outraged to hear about the explosion in Oslo and attack in Utøya today that have killed and injured innocent people,” he said. “These attacks are a stark reminder of the threat we all face from terrorism. We can overcome this evil, and we will.”
President Obama added: “This is a reminder that the entire international community has a stake in preventing this kind of terror.”
A police official said that the attack was Norway’s “Oklahoma City” rather than its “World Trade Centre”.
It was the biggest attack in Western Europe since the 2004 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 and the worst on Norwegian soil since the Second World War. The square in the government quarter where the bomb exploded was covered in twisted metal and shattered glass and carpeted in documents expelled from the surrounding buildings, which house government offices and the headquarters of some of Norway’s leading newspapers.
Most of the windows were shattered in the 20-storey block in Oslo where Mr Stoltenberg and his administration work. One witness, Ole Tommy Pedersen, who was standing 100 yards from a government building hit by the explosion, said: “I saw three or four injured people being carried out.” Another, Kjersti Vedun, said: “It exploded — it must have been a bomb. People ran in panic. I counted ten injured people.”
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/europe/article3103286.ece