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Police reveal new arrest details

July 27, 2011  

Police who finally tracked down the lone bomber and gunman who killed 76 persons in Norway last Friday said they found him in a forest glen on the island of Utøya “with his hands over his head.” He surrendered and was arrested without further incident.

Before that, though, the gunman dressed like a policeman himself, had spent nearly two hours terrorizing members of the Labour Party’s youth organization at their annual summer camp, along with support personnel and members of Norwegian Peoples Aid, who had been on the island to conduct a seminar. Anders Behring Breivik, now in isolation at Ila Prison outside Oslo, reportedly laughed as he roamed around the island shooting at random and murdering 68 persons.

“He seemed to enjoy shooting at us,” one camper told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK).

Boat trouble
Police in Oslo got their first calls about shooting on the island at 5:30pm on Friday, about a half-hour after it began. A special forces team was assembled within eight minutes and drove towards the island but had to wait for a boat to carry them out from the mainland. There is no regularly scheduled ferry service to Utøya.

The team consisted of two police officers from Nordre Buskerud and eight from the special force known as Beredskapstroppen. Operations leader Håvard Gåsbakk confirmed that a police boat brought in developed motor trouble, so the police commandeered two private boats and headed for the island’s only dock.

Breivik was arrested at 6:27pm, two minutes after the police first arrived on the island and fanned out in two directions.

Could hear shooting
Gåsbakk told reporters at a press conference in Hønefoss Wednesday that some of those who’d survived Breivik’ rampage pointed towards the northside of the island and the police started running.

“We got closer and we could hear shooting the whole time,” Gåsbakk said. “When we got closer we started using our voices, yelling that we were armed police and that he must surrender.” The terrain on the island was difficult.

“Suddenly the perpetrator was standing right in front of us with his hands over his head,” Gåsbakk said. His weapons were lying on the ground about 15 meters behind him. They still contained ammunition.

NRK reported that Breivik was close to getting shot because police feared he was wearing explosives and would set them off. He didn’t, his clothing was searched and he was handcuffed while other police immediately started first aid efforts for the wounded.

Police feared there were other gunmen on the island, and Breivik had apparently hung small packages in the trees that police also feared were explosives. It was a false alarm and Breivik was moved to a house on the island where he was kept until finally being taken back to the mainland several hours later.

More police started arriving on the island and all were sent to help victims. Volunteers also started arriving in more boats to help get survivors back to the mainland, where all were taken to nearby Sundvollen Hotel.

Police in Oslo continued to release the identities of those killed, with the list now standing at 17 including a 14-year-old girl.

Views and News from Norway/Nina Berglund
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  • Loren R.

    I can’t imagine the horror those kids went through. They were able to get text messages off immediately but it took the police almost 2 hours to get there. Can you imagine the fear those kids felt?
    And the politicians are being told they did a good job? No helicopter? No good boat?In a wealthy country like Norway? Both helicopter pilots on vacation at the same time? Completely unprepared and people say the Prime Minister and police did a good job? That is crazy. The politicians and police commanders should be locked up too.
    This guy should have have been taken out within 10 minutes.

    • dsha

      I could not have said better than that.

    • Matt

      I agree mostly, but 10 mins surely would have been impossible. But the pilot/helicopter/boat thing is horrendous. What if the island had been further away from Oslo or the shoreline? It’s easy to look back with 20/20 vision after the event, but the heat should eventually fall on the top politicians and police for these failings.

      • dsha

        And what if the shooting happened in Tromsø, some 1500 km to the north of Oslo? The Delta force, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beredskapstroppen, is only located in Oslo. Would they fly for 1.5 hours to Tromsø then? Who, if anyone, is supposed to handle such situations in remote cities? If local police, what were they doing during the Utøya shooting?

        I hope the recently formed commission will give people of Norway answers to these questions. Or at least to those who are interested in knowing the answers.

        • Rob

          If the shooting had happened in Tromso I would have expected a city of its size to have a group of firearms trained police, where I come from in NZ we have the Armed Offenders Squads, these are located all over the country, they deal with situations where offenders are using firearms, if it’s too difficult we have the Police Special Weapons Squad or the SAS as a last resort. But nothing in Norway surprises me when it comes to not spending money on things that need money being spent on, in my town the local police need a new car, to get it they have to sell their highly usefull and well used police launch, nuts if you ask me that a seaside city has to sell it’s boat to buy a police car.

        • Bente Radnofsky

          Have you read the reports? I am bi-lingual in Norwegian and English and having read many, many reports on this tragedy in both languages I can tell you that prior to the island attack the youths at the camp had all been gathered in the main hall to receive information on the bombings in Oslo. As they were leaving the hall, the terrorist A.B.B. beckoned them over, saying help had arrived and to join him for more information. When they did, he started shooting. The youths then started running, desperate to find hiding places. This is where you think they should have been filming or recording desperate screams for help? Are you serious?

          It doesn’t matter that the ratio was about 1:700, the 700 were unarmed! Do you get it? The horrific events at Utoya (and I’m quite sure no film footage exists apart from the odd cell phone photo of youths hiding)should not be released as film clips for anyone to enjoy, please think before you post such thoughtless queries!

  • mindful

    My question is. What was going on, on the island before or for the first part of the shooting? meal, rally, event? 600 young people, politically active mean at least 580 cellphones. did no one tape, video, text, etc about the incident. There is no footage to be found anywhere online. Can someone find something? Maybe there is more information for us? One guy against 600 hiding, running around on a big island, you would think someone would call with sound, video, photos of the event. Please forward the media.

  • Karolv

    I think foreigners with comments should read Hans M on “Foreigners just don’t ‘get’ Norway” on this site and keep their uninformed comments to themselves. Norway is not North America.

    • YankInOz

      Very good advice. Problem is that most Americans can’t conceive of any country not living with the kind of fear that they live with every day. In a country where the Head of State can ride his bicycle to work without a horde of body guards, all of the preparations such as helicopters and swat teams have never been needed. An attack of this type could not have been foreseen in Norway. Norway has been, in many ways, a country of innocence. It gladdens the heart to see that this tragedy has brought the people even closer together. Would that all people in all countries could be as Norwegians.

  • Loren

    5 to 10 minutes in my city. 15 minutes on the outside for this situation. 2 cops brave enough to get over there is all it would have taken.

  • Ellen

    I am an American who has lived in Sweden ( I also have Swedish Citizenship) which is similar to Norway. What people who have never lived there don’t understand is that these are nations that are proud of the fact they don’t need all the police and security that we have here in the US. That is a fact all over Scandanavia. The amount of guns available is very small. It takes quite a lot of work to get a permit to even have a gun there. Also, it being a summer month, the whole of Scandanavia is pretty much of vacation. The fact that they have such long winters and very short summer months, everyone takes advantage of this. I use to live in a very small village in Sweden and was so suprised when I walked by the police station and it was closed for a month. This is not unusual. Also they do not have the road systems that we have in the US. Most of the roads are two lane and very narrow. Also very remote town and villages that are very difficult to get to even by car. This is a country where murders and crimes like this are so rare. Before we judge them so harshly one does need to understand that these are proud countries that pride themselves on equality and openness. I think they probably did the best they could do under the circumstances. I am just so sorry and horrified that this happened to a country that is so proud. When a madman is going to target innocent people even if their ideas are so bizzare that is not much one can do, even in the US and we have seen in the Oklahoma bombing. My heart goes out to the people of Norway and the families of those who have lost their children and family members. The world is weeping with you.