76 Dead in Norway Attack

 
Anders Behring Breivik, the man accused of a killing spree and bomb attack in Norway, sits in the rear of a vehicle as he is transported in a police convoy in Oslo.


The first atrocity was the car bombing. Then, two hours later, came the attack on the island.
A 32-year-old Norwegian man named Anders Behring Breivik is the prime suspect in the murderous rampage.

Police told reporters that Breivik's targets of his anger were government officials and children associated with the governing Labor Party, not immigrants. It has been reported that the car bomb exploded near the office of the prime minister, who had planned to attend on Saturday the youth camp his party sponsored.

Breivik was reportedly dressed as a policeman and told the youth group he had come there as part of a security detail to protect them. Police told reporters that the suspect had never been a member of the police force but had served time in the army.

Witnesses say the suspect called on the children on the island, aged between 14 and 18, to gather around him. Then he opened fire. Police said he used automatic weapons and a handgun.
The gunman then moved across the small, wooded island of Utoeya firing at young people who scattered in panic or tried to swim to safety.

The death toll is now reported as the worst in Europe since the 2004 Madrid train bombings, the work of Islamic terrorists that killed 191 people.

At a news conference, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said Norway is a quiet nation of 4.8 million.
"A paradise island has been transformed into a hell," he told reporters.

A local newspaper reported that Bishop Laila Riksaasen Dahl of the Church of Norway diocese in Tunsberg, along with other clergy, met with survivors and relatives of those slain by the gunman.
Riksaasen Dahl told the Norwegian daily Aftenposten that many of the young people had seen close friends gunned down, or had themselves been victims of the shooting.

"The scope of this nightmarish story is so unbelievable," Riksaasen Dahl told the newspaper.
Churches across the country planned to remain open all day Saturday to offer prayers and comfort, Riksaasen Dahl said. "Every death notice is tragic, but when there are so many who are affected, it's overwhelming to take in."

Some prayer services were broadcast live over Norwegian radio Saturday.

A BBC reporter said today that emotions were running high at the lake and many survivors were hostile toward the media for intruding on their grief.

Police say they are sifting through the life details of Breivik to find answers as to his motives behind the murders.