One man’s madness kills 91 in Norway

32 year old Right wing extremist plants car bomb outside Oslo centre killing seven, then opens fire at a youth camp killing 84

One man's madness kills 91 in Norway

32 year old Right wing extremist plants car bomb outside Oslo centre killing seven, then opens fire at a youth camp killing 84

Police arrested and charged 32 year-old Anders Behring Breivik for bombing Oslo's centre where government offices -- including that of the Prime Minister -- are located, killing seven persons and massacring 84 persons at Utoeya island on Friday. Norwegian media identified Breivik as "an ethnic Norwegian" and a member of a Right wing extremist group headquartered in the east of Norway. He reportedly has a previous record of arrest.

Anders Behring Breivik. Pic/AFP/Facebook

Authorities asked citizens to avoid Oslo's centre, after a car bomb ripped apart government offices, including that of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, and left seven dead and 90 injured on Friday. Breivik then travelled to the Utoeya island, where the ruling Labour Party was holding a youth camp that was attended by 600 people and opened fire on the crowd.

A numbed Stoltenberg called the bloodbath "a nightmare". "Never since World War II has our country been hit by a crime of this scale," he said. According to the police, Breivik took a ferry to the wooded island 40 km from the Norway capital, where the ruling Labour Party was holding a youth camp, hours after the Oslo bombing.u00a0 The camp was for youngsters and most attendees were aged 14 to 18 years.

According to eyewitnesses, the accused posed as a police officer and gathered a number of people together pretending to investigate the bomb blasts. He then opened fire, armed with a handgun, an automatic weapon and a shotgun. The shooting went on for an hour according to an unnamed 15 year-old survivor who said the assassin "first shot people on the island and then those who had jumped into the water to make a desperate escape."

That attack was initially speculated to be the work of the Al Qaeda by terrorism experts. It is not yet clear how the gunman was caught. The authorities have not ascribed any apparent motive to the killings. Stoltenberg released a statement saying, "We are a small country, but a very proud one. Nobody can bomb us to be quiet. Nobody can shoot us to be quiet. Nobody can ever scare us from being Norway."

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