Man Charged in Deadliest Norway Attacks Since World War II

July 23, 2011, 6:10 AM EDT
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By Josiane Kremer and Stephen Treloar

(Adds Clinton comment in 13th paragraph.)

July 23 (Bloomberg) -- Twin attacks in Norway, the deadliest since World War II, left 91 people dead after a gunman killed 84 people at a youth camp on an island near Oslo and a bomb explosion in the center of the capital killed seven people.

A 32-year-old Norwegian man was arrested on the island of Utoeya, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Oslo, and authorities have begun interrogating the suspect, police said at a press briefing today. The same person is likely behind the bombing and the shootings on the island, they said. The suspect’s name is Anders Behring Breivik, local media reported. Police declined to confirm the suspect’s name.

The man has been charged on two counts of “dangerous crime to society,” which means he could be sentenced to 21 years in prison, Norway’s toughest punishment, Roger Andresen, deputy Oslo police chief, told reporters today. The man is a Christian fundamentalist with right-wing tendencies, Andresen said.

The blast in central Oslo shattered windows at the office of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. Hundreds of youths were attending the camp organized by the youth wing of Stoltenberg’s Labor Party.

“Not since World War II has our country experienced a greater tragedy,” Stoltenberg said in a speech today. “For me, Utoeya was the paradise island of my youth that was transformed into hell.”

“The search may take a while as the island has a number of buildings and forested areas,” Anders Frydenberg, a spokesman for Oslo police, said by telephone today. He declined to say whether police believe the shooting was carried out by a single gunman or multiple people and declined to comment on the motives for the attack.

Man in Custody

“The police are not going to confirm his name,” Frydenberg said. “We have a man in custody and are asking him questions about shooting episodes at the island. We are still talking to him.”

Police “see a connection between the attack in Oslo center and the attack on the island because both attacks are at political sites in Norway,” he said. “The bomb blast in Oslo center was toward government buildings, which are being ruled by the Labor party. The youth camp was a Labor party youth camp. That’s the connection between the two attacks.”

Stoltenberg, called the attack on his office “cowardly” and said it wouldn’t interrupt government functioning. Stoltenberg was due to appear today at the youth gathering on Utoeya, Sponheim said. The suspected shooter, who wore a police uniform, wasn’t a police officer, he said.

‘A Lot Unclear’

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said he contacted Stoltenberg to convey his condolences. “From a Swedish perspective, we’re following the ongoing development,” he said. “There is still a lot that is unclear about what has happened.”

Neighboring Sweden had a brush with what police treated as a possible terrorist attack in December when a suicide bomber injured two people in central Stockholm.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen sent a statement conveying his “deepest sympathy and solidarity” with the Norwegian people. U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague described the bombing in a press release as “horrific.” China, Australia and New Zealand condemned the attack and expressed their condolences.

‘Peaceful People’

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton broke away from her prepared remarks at an entrepreneurship event in Bali, Indonesia, to express sympathy.

“This tragedy strikes right at the heart and soul of a peaceful people,” the top U.S. Diplomat said. “Norway is well known for its efforts to resolve conflict and bring people together.”

Before the explosion, a car drove into the government quarter, the police said in a statement. No government ministers were hurt, Stoltenberg told broadcaster NRK.

Eirik Borg, a back office worker at stockbrokerage Fearnley Fonds based near the scene, said he saw smoke billowing from the government quarter after hearing the blast.

‘Hard Impact’

“We felt the impact very hard throughout the building,” Borg said in a phone interview. “All the windows were breaking and we actually thought lightning hit our roof. From our terrace, we saw white smoke.”

The bombing initially sent Norway’s currency and stocks lower. The krone weakened as much as 1 percent against the dollar and was trading 0.4 percent lower at 8:30 p.m. local time yesterday. Against the euro, the krone was little changed at 7.7851 after losing as much as 0.4 percent. The benchmark OBX stock index fell as much as 0.4 percent before closing little changed.

“Large sections of the center of Oslo have been evacuated and the police are urging people to stay away from the center of the city and limit their use of mobile phones,” police said in a statement. Sponheim said police don’t expect further blasts.

The country’s Ministry of Petroleum suffered “massive damage” as a consequence of the blast, spokesman Haakon Smith- Isaksen said by phone. Norway is the world’s seventh-largest oil exporter.

“There was a huge explosion, the windows just blew out,” Smith-Isaken said. “There is much debris, people are injured.”

--With assistance from Frances Schwartzkopff in Copenhagen, Kati Pohjanpalo and Diana ben-Aaron in Helsinki, Ola Kinnander, Johan Carlstrom, Adam Ewing, Kim McLaughlin and Toby Alder in Stockholm. Editors: Chad Thomas, Marianne Stigset

To contact the reporters on this story: Josiane Kremer in Oslo at jkremer4@bloomberg.net; Stephen Treloar in Oslo at streloar1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Angela Cullen at acullen8@bloomberg.net