Norwegian police has revealed the shocking scale of a shooting at a youth gathering on Utoya Island in Norway: at least 84 dead and dozens wounded. Police arrested one gunman, but some eyewitnesses say there were two men involved.
A 32-year-old Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik has been arrested in connection with the killing of 84 people at a youth camp on Utoya Island. Police believe he might also be linked to the Oslo bombings and they have charged him with both attacks.
Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who held a press conference on Saturday morning, said there is a possibility that there was more than one person involved in the bombing and shooting attacks.
TV2 has just reported that a second man was arrested at Sundsvoll, where victims and relatives have gathered along with PM, Justice Secretary and Foreign Minister. The channel stressed that it is far too early to determine if the detainee is in fact the second gunman.
“A little war going on out there” – eyewitness
A gunman disguised as a police officer started shooting on Utoya Island just outside Oslo, where some 560 people mostly between 15 and 25 years of age were attending a Labor Party conference.
Reports say the attacker arrived at the annual youth summer camp of Norway’s ruling political party shortly after the Oslo bombing. He joined people who were discussing the latest news from Oslo and started shooting at them.
“We had all gathered in the main house to talk about what had happened in Oslo. Suddenly we heard shots. First we thought it was nonsense. Then everyone started running,” a 16-year-old survivor called Hana recalled, according to Reuters news agency.
Eye-witnesses spoke of people running in panic, some trying to dive into the water to escape the carnage when the attacker began spraying them with gunfire. He then began firing at people in the water.
“I saw people being shot. I tried to sit as quietly as possible. I was hiding behind some stones. I saw him once, just 20, 30 meters away from me,” Reuters quoted one of the survivors as saying.
An eyewitness to the shooting who was on the mainland at the moment declared: “There is a little war going on out there,” The Guardian newspaper reported.
Many ran for their lives, some jumping into the water in an attempt to reach the mainland. Law enforcement officials say the consequences of the attack are catastrophic: at least 84 lives lost, and dozens more wounded. The police did not rule out that there might be more victims.
Locals who tried to rescue some of the injured claimed they saw dozens of bodies in the water.
Undetonated explosives were also found on the island. Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported that a bomb was found in a car on Utoya Island possibly belonging to the shooter.
The island is currently sealed off. The anti-terror police and rescuers are on the site and the rescue operation to find survivors is ongoing.