Bodies are seen on the shoreline of Utoya island, near Oslo, where officials say a gunman killed at least 80 people. Witnesses said the gunman was wearing a police uniform, and was tall, light-haired and spoke fluent Norwegian. (Associated Press / July 22, 2011)
Reporting from London—
A horrific shooting rampage at a youth summer camp left at least 80 people dead as Norway reeled from apparently related terrorist attacks in a nation long known as the home of the Nobel Peace Prize.
In addition to the shooting at a youth camp attended by hundreds on the island of Utoya, a massive bomb exploded in downtown Oslo, killing seven and injuring dozens.
Police director Oystein Maeland told reporters early Saturday they had discovered many more victims after initially reporting the death toll at 10, the Associated Press reported.
Maeland couldn't say how many people were injured in the shooting.
The summer camp on Utoya, about 19 miles from Oslo, was organized by the youth wing of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's Labor Party.
According to the Associated Press, a suspect in the shootings and the Oslo explosion was arrested. Though police did not release his name, Norwegian national broadcaster NRK identified him as 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik and said police searched his Oslo apartment overnight. NRK and other Norwegian media posted pictures of the blond, blue-eyed Norwegian.
National police chief Sveinung Sponheim told public broadcaster NRK that the suspected gunman's Internet postings "suggest that he has some political traits directed toward the right, and anti-Muslim views, but if that was a motivation for the actual act remains to be seen."
Earlier, speculation had swirled around both Islamic militant groups and domestic right-wing extremists. Al Qaeda previously has singled out Norway as a target, and a shadowy group affiliated with the terrorist network reportedly claimed responsibility, a statement that could not be verified.
But another police official said the suspect appears to have acted alone in both attacks, and that "it seems like that this is not linked to any international terrorist organizations at all." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because that information had not been officially released by Norway's police.
"It seems it's not Islamic-terror related," the official said. "This seems like a madman's work."
The official said the attack "is probably more Norway's Oklahoma City than it is Norway's World Trade Center." Domestic terrorists carried out the 1995 attack on a federal building in Oklahoma City, while foreign terrorists were responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Friday's double attacks, which police said were linked, recalled the dramatic 2008 siege on a hotel and other sites in Mumbai, India, that raised international fear of coordinated, sophisticated attacks on "soft" targets unprepared for a large-scale assault.
The rampage on Utoya, a small, heavily wooded island not far from Oslo, was a particularly harsh blow. A youth convention of the ruling Labor Party, the biggest political event of the summer, was underway there. Hundreds of young people, some of them teenagers, were in attendance.
Authorities witnesses described the assailant as a man dressed in a police uniform. The suspect, a 32-year-old Norwegian, was arrested on Utoya. Police later found undetonated explosives on the island.
The prime minister's office was heavily damaged by the bomb blast in Oslo, which killed seven people. Norwegian news reports said that Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was working at another location and was unharmed. In a nationally televised address, he urged his compatriots not to be overcome by fear.
But the shock and scars from the violence will probably run deep in the normally placid, close-knit Scandinavian nation of about 5 million people. Authorities closed Norway's borders shortly after the attacks.
"Norway will stand together in a time of crisis," Stoltenberg said.
Addressing the attackers, he said: "You will not destroy our democracy and our ideals for a better world.... No one will bomb us into silence; no one will shoot us into silence."
At the White House, President Obama sent his condolences to Oslo and called for stronger global cooperation to combat terrorism.
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