A SWAT team aim their weapons while people take cover during shootings at Utoya Island, site of a youth camp.
OSLO, Norway - A "catastrophic" shooting on an island outside Norway's capital Friday killed at least 80 people, police said early Saturday, much higher than the initial count released.Police told reporters they had discovered many more victims after initially reporting the death toll at 10 in a shooting spree at the youth camp of Norway's Labour Party at Utoya Island, outside the capital city.
The usually peaceful nation was reeling after two deadly attacks Friday: the shooting and a deadly bombing that damaged a government building in downtown Oslo. The explosion left seven people dead and nine or 10 seriously injured, police said.- According to a Reuters report, police director Oystein Maeland said the island attack had reached "catastrophic dimensions."
"It's taken time to search the area. What we know now is that we can say that there are at least 80 killed at Utoya," Maeland said. "It goes without saying that this gives dimensions to this incident that are exceptional."- Maeland also cautioned that the death toll from the island shooting could increase, noting that many were badly wounded in the attack.
A 15-year-old camper named Elise said she heard gunshots, but then saw a police officer and thought she was safe. Then he started shooting people right before her eyes.- "I saw many dead people," said Elise, whose father, Vidar Myhre, didn't want her to disclose her last name. "He first shot people on the island. Afterward he started shooting people in the water."
- 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. She said it was impossible to say how many minutes passed while she was waiting for him to stop.
A suspect was arrested in connection with both attacks. Though police did not release his name, Norwegian national broadcaster NRK identified him as Anders Behring Breivik, 32, and said police searched his Oslo apartment overnight. NRK and other Norwegian media posted pictures of the blond, blue-eyed Norwegian.
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