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Sunday, 24 July 2011

Norway gun suspect 'acted alone'

Live coverage from Oslo's cathedral of the memorial service for the victims of the terror attacks in Norway on Friday
A suspected right-wing extremist accused of a massacre at a youth camp in Norway and a bombing in the capital, Oslo, says he acted alone, police say.
Anders Behring Breivik, 32, "admitted to the facts of both the bombing and the shooting, although he's not admitting criminal guilt", said police chief Sveinung Sponheim.
At least 92 people were killed in the double attack, with some still missing.
As the nation grieves, services are being held across the country.
The prime minister and the king and queen of Norway are attending a memorial service at Oslo Cathedral, laying single white flowers outside as they entered.
"He says that he was alone but the police must verify everything that he said. Some of the witness statements from the island have made us unsure of whether there was one or more shooters," Mr Sponheim said.
He said police were not looking for anyone else at the moment - though they had not ruled out that the suspect might have had help.
He said Mr Beivik had co-operated during his interrogation and there had been a "good" dialogue.
Mr Breivik's lawyer, Geir Lippestad, said the attack had been planned "for some while"
Mr Breivik has been charged with committing acts of terrorism, and is due to appear in court on Monday.
At least seven people were killed in Friday in a bomb attack on the government quarter in Oslo. Soon afterwards, 85 people were shot dead as gunman ran amok on the nearby island of Utoeya.
At least four people from the island camp shooting are yet to be found; it is thought some may have drowned after swimming out into the lake to escape the hail of bullets.
Police are using a mini-submarine to search for the missing bodies.
In Oslo police said the death toll could rise further as bodies or body parts were in buildings damaged by the bomb but still too unstable to search.
Years of planning
"He thought it was gruesome having to commit these acts, but in his head they were necessary," Mr Breivik's lawyer Geir Lippestad told Norwegian media.
He added that the actions had been planned for some time.

At the scene

In driving rain, and with the sound of thunder in the air, people are standing in a circle outside Oslo's cathedral.
In the middle of the circle is a carpet of flowers, illuminated by candles. There are people hugging, holding hands, and standing in silence.
I pass a couple whose eyes are bloodshot through crying, tears dripping down their faces.
Ida, 27, tells me she is here because one of her friends is missing - a 27-year-old lawyer. She was in one of the buildings in the city centre now behind army lines, declared too dangerous for rescue workers to enter.
I have heard one Norwegian man say for so long this country felt it lived on the outskirts of fear.
It doesn't feel like that any more.
The suspect is reported to have had links with right-wing extremists.
Still pictures of him, wearing a wetsuit and carrying an automatic weapon, appeared in a 12-minute anti-Muslim video called Knights Templar 2083, which appeared briefly on YouTube.
A 1,500-page document written in English and said to be by Mr Breivik - posted under the pseudonym of Andrew Berwick - was also put online hours before the attacks, suggesting they had been years in the planning.
The document and the video repeatedly refer to multiculturalism and Muslim immigration; the author claims to be a follower of the Knights Templar - a medieval Christian organisation involved in the Crusades, and sometimes revered by white supremacists.
Police have not speculated on motives for the attack but the bomb in Oslo targeted buildings connected to Norway's governing Labour Party, and the youth camp on Utoeya island was also run by the party.
In the document posted online, references were made to targeting "cultural Marxists/ multiculturalist traitors".
Norway has had problems with neo-Nazi groups in the past but the assumption was that such groups had been largely eliminated and did not pose a significant threat, says the BBC's Richard Galpin, near the island which remains cordoned off by police.

Island shooting suspect

Anders Behring Breivik
  • Describes himself as a Christian and conservative on Facebook page attributed to him
  • Grew up in Oslo and attended Oslo School of Management
  • Set up farm through which he was able to buy fertiliser, which may have been used to make a bomb
The Utoeya island shooting came just hours after the initial massive blast in central Oslo, which police say was caused by a car bomb.
Eyewitnesses on the island have painted a horrifying picture of events as a tall, blond man, dressed as a policeman, asked people to gather round and then opened fire indiscriminately.
While some were shot at as they tried to swim to safety, others cowered in undergrowth, hid in buildings, or pretended to be dead amid the bodies of other victims as the gunman continued his rampage.
Police said they took 45 minutes to reach the island, and the suspect was apprehended 45 minutes after that, surrendering when approached by armed officers.
He is reported to have been armed with two weapons, one of them an automatic rifle.
Map of central Oslo and Utoeya

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