91 dead: Norway terror ‘won’t destroy us’

PEOPLE light candles and lay flowers in central Oslo on Saturday to pay tribute to the victims of twin attacks at the government headquarters building in Oslo and on a youth camp in Norway’s deadliest postwar tragedy wherein 91 people died. AFP

SUNDVOLLEN, Norway—To the survivors, it was a scene straight out of a “Nazi movie.”

Cowering just behind a rock where the killer stood, a girl managed to phone her parents, who then told her to stay calm and take off her brightly colored jacket so as not to draw attention.

A man was able to send a frantic text message to a sister—“I am scared (expletive) … I love you”—before fleeing the massacre site on a boat.

Another man made it out alive by pretending to be dead; he lay close enough to hear the killer’s breathing and feel the heat of his machine gun.

In the deadliest day of terror in Western Europe since 2004 and the worst postwar carnage in the country that hosts the Nobel Peace Prize, a blond, blue-eyed Norwegian dressed as a police officer on Friday gunned down at least 84 people at an island youth camp before being arrested.

In a news conference in Oslo, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said he had spent many summers on the island of Utoya, “my childhood paradise that yesterday was transformed into Hell.”

“The coming days will show who is responsible and what kind of punishment they will get,” the premier stressed, adding:

“The message to whoever attacked us, the message from all of Norway is that you will not destroy us, you will not destroy our democracy and our ideals for a better world.”

Police on Saturday said the man had also set off a bomb that killed seven people outside the prime minister’s headquarters in downtown Oslo, about 35 kilometers from the camp. The massive explosion ripped through government buildings that also included the oil and finance ministry.

Unlikely terror target

The attacks on Friday afternoon, the region’s bloodiest since the 2004 Madrid bombings, bewildered a nation better known for its active diplomacy and peacekeeping missions than as a target for extremists.

Police official Roger Andresen told reporters that the total death toll was now 91 and that a suspect was in custody being questioned for both attacks.

Though authorities did not release his name, Norwegian national broadcaster NRK identified him as 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik and said police searched his Oslo apartment overnight.

An officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity pending an official statement from Norway’s police, said the suspect appeared to have acted alone in both attacks, and that “it seems like this is not linked to any international terrorist organizations at all.”

“It seems it’s not Islamic-terror related,” the official said. “This seems like a madman’s work.”

Disguised as a cop

The mass shooting was among the worst in history—and it all began when a man in a police uniform turned up on Utoya island, which was hosting a retreat for the youth wing of Norway’s ruling Labor Party.

He shouted for youth campers to come closer, then pulled weapons and ammunition from a bag and started shooting.

The gunman used his disguise to lure in his victims, then shot them twice to make sure they were dead, survivors said in the village of Sundvollen, where they were taken after the massacre.

“I saw many dead people,” said 15-year-old Elise, whose father, Vidar Myhre, didn’t want her to disclose her last name. She was just several feet away from the gunman when he opened fire.

Elise said she had just come out from an information meeting in a nearby building when she heard gunshots. She saw a police officer and thought she was safe, but then he started shooting.

“He first shot people on the island. Afterward he started shooting people in the water,” she said.

Elise 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.

In panic, the girl phoned her parents, whispering to them what was going on. “They told me not to panic and that everything would be OK.”

Her parents also told her to get rid of a brightly colored jacket she was wearing to not draw attention to herself.

560 people in camp

Survivors described a scene of sheer terror at the camp, where some 560 people were eagerly awaiting a speech the prime minister was to give there on Saturday.

The survivors seemed calm as anxious parents picked them up at a Sundvollen hotel, but the stories they told were of utter terror.

Several victims “had pretended as if they were dead to survive,” said 21-year-old Dana Berzingi. 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 Berzingi, whose pants were stained with blood. He said he used the cell phone of one of his fallen friends to call police.

Emilie Bersaas, identified by Sky News television as one of the youths on the island, said she ran inside a school building and hid under a bed when the shooting started.

“At one point the shooting was very, very close (to) the building, I think it actually hit the building one time, and the people in the next room screamed very loud,” she said.

“I laid under the bed for two hours and then the police smashed a window and came in,” Bersaas said. “It seems kind of unreal, especially in Norway. This is not something that could happen here.”

Another camper, Niclas Tokerud, stayed in touch with his sister through the attack through text messages.

‘I’m safe’

“He sent me a text saying, ‘There’s been gunshots. I am scared (expletive). But I am hiding and safe. I love you,’” said Nadia Tokerud, a 25-year-old graphic designer in Hokksund, Norway.

As he boarded a boat from the island after the danger had passed he sent one more text: “I’m safe.”

The gunman arrived claiming he was investigating the bomb attack. “He said it was a routine check in connection with the terror attack in Oslo,” one witness told VG Nett, the website of a national newspaper.

Among the wounded was Adrian Pracon, who was shot in the left shoulder as the gunman opened fire.   Speaking to Australia’s ABC network from hospital, he said the scene on the island was like a “Nazi movie.”

“He had an M16, it did look like a machine gun. When I saw him from the side yelling that he was about to kill us, he looked like he was taken from a Nazi movie or something,” Pracon added.

“He started shooting at these people, so I laid down and acted as if I was dead. He stood maybe 2 meters away from me. I could hear him breathing. I could feel the heat of the machine gun.”

Killer made sure

“He tried everyone, he kicked them to see if they were alive, or he just shot them,” Pracon said.

Another young survivor, Jorgen Benone, said: “People were hiding behind stones. I saw people being shot … I felt it was best to stay quiet, not to run into the open.

“I saw (the gunman) once just 20 to 30 meters away from me,” Benone said, adding that he then swam to safety and was rescued by a boat.

Terrified youths jumped into the water to escape. Many could not flee in time.

“Kids have started to swim in a panic, and Utoya is far from the mainland,” said Bjorn Jarle Roberg-Larsen, a Labor Party member who spoke by phone with teenagers on the island, which has no bridge to the mainland.

Facebook, Twitter posts

National police chief Sveinung Sponheim told NRK that the suspected gunman’s Internet postings “suggest that he has some political traits directed toward the right, and anti-Muslim views, but whether that was a motivation for the actual act remains to be seen.”

Andersen said the suspect posted on websites with Christian fundamentalist tendencies.

According to the TV2 channel, the arrested suspect has links to right-wing extremists and possessed two weapons registered in his name.

Other Norwegian media reported that he described himself on his Facebook page as “conservative,” “Christian,” and interested in hunting, computer games like World of Warcraft and Modern Warfare 2, and in books like Niccolo Machiavelli’s “The Prince” and George Orwell’s “1984.”

There was also a Twitter account apparently belonging to Breivik. It had one item, posted last Sunday: “One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests.”

Breivik had registered a farm-related business in Rena, in eastern Norway, which authorities said allowed him to order a large quantity of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, an ingredient that can be used to make explosives. Reports from AFP, AP and New York Times News Service