Tragedy in Norway. Breivik terrorist attacks in Norway July 22 attack
The territory of Norway is so large, and the population is so small, that there is a unique opportunity to relax alone with nature. Far from industrial pollution and the noise of big cities, you can gain new strength surrounded by virgin nature. Wherever you are, nature is always around you. Dine at the city's street restaurant before cycling through the forest or taking a dip in the sea.
Many thousands of years ago, a huge layer of ice covered Norway. The glacier settled in lakes, at the bottom of rivers and deepened steep valleys that stretched towards the sea. The glacier advanced and retreated 5, 10 or perhaps even 20 times before finally retreating 14,000 years ago. As a memory of itself, the glacier left deep valleys that filled the sea, and magnificent fjords, which many consider the soul of Norway.
The Vikings, among others, founded their settlements here and used the fjords and small bays as the main means of communication during their campaigns. Today, the fjords are more famous for their spectacular scenery than for the Vikings. Their uniqueness is that people still live here. Today, high up in the hills, you can find working farms idyllically attached to the mountain slopes.
Fjords are present throughout the Norwegian coastline- from the Oslofjord to the Varangerfjord. Each of them is beautiful in its own way. Nevertheless, the most famous fjords in the whole world are located in the west of Norway. Some of the largest and most powerful waterfalls are also found in this part of Norway. They form on the edges of cliffs, high above your head and cascade into the emerald green water of the fjords. Equally high is the rock "Church Pulpit" (Prekestolen) - a mountain shelf that rises 600 meters above Lysefjord in Rogaland.
Norway is a long and narrow country with a coast that is as beautiful, amazing and diverse as the rest of its territory. Wherever you are, the sea is always near you. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Norwegians are such experienced and skillful seafarers. For a long time, the sea was the only way connecting coastal areas Norway - with its coastline extended for many thousands of kilometers.
In Norway, a government bombing and shooting at a youth camp killed 91 people. First, at about 15.30 local time (17.30 Moscow time), an explosion occurred near the government building. According to preliminary police reports, a car filled with explosives blew up. A powerful blast wave knocked out windows in the buildings of the government and the ministry of the oil industry. Norwegian television showed asphalt strewn with glass, fragments of doors, wounded people lying on it. According to the latest data, as a result of the attack, seven people were killed and more than ten were injured.
An hour and a half after the explosion near the government, an unknown person opened fire in the camp of the youth wing of the Workers' Party of Norway, which is headed by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.
About 600 people gathered at the party rally on the island of Utøya (located on Lake Tyrfjord, about an hour's drive from Oslo), many of whom were teenagers. At about 17:00 (19:30 Moscow time), a young tall man in a police uniform came to the camp. Passing between the small houses of the camp, where the participants lived, he shot at everyone who met him on the way. According to the police, from "automatic weapons and pistols." “We all gathered at headquarters to talk about what happened in Oslo. Suddenly we heard shots. At first they thought it was nonsense, and then we ran out into the street, 16-year-old Hannah, a surviving 16-year-old, tells Norway's Aftenposten. “I saw a policeman with earplugs. He looked at us and said: “I want to collect everyone.” And then he ran and started shooting at people". The participants of the rally ran to the water, many jumped into the lake to hide from the bullets. But the criminal stood near the shore and began to shoot at the swimming teenagers, other eyewitnesses say. A young girl who was pulled out of the lake rescuers, told TV2: "He walked slowly around the island and shot at everyone he saw. Eventually he came to where I was sitting and slowly killed ten people in front of my eyes. He was so calm, it was very scary."
As of 11.30 Saturday, 84 people were shot in the youth camp.
There could have been more victims, police say. While combing the area on Utoya in search of victims, law enforcement agencies discovered a bomb planted near the camp. It didn't work "for a technical reason". Dozens of young people remain in hospitals. Doctors say that the number of victims could rise: the condition of many patients is assessed as extremely serious.
After the terrorist attack in Oslo and the first reports of a shooting in a youth camp, the Norwegian media immediately began to write about the Islamist trail. But the detainee on Utoya turned out to be an ethnic Norwegian. All Western media have already published photos of 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik - a tall, green-eyed Norwegian with light blond hair.
According to , Breivik adhered to far-right views. A friend of the perpetrator told Gang Verdens that the Norwegian became a nationalist a few years ago, "somewhere in his twenties."
He expressed his ultra-right beliefs in discussions on various websites. “He is an ardent opponent of the idea that people of different cultures can live side by side with each other,” says the source of the publication.
Social media users almost immediately discovered Breivik's Facebook page. Among his interests are bodybuilding, conservative politics and freemasonry. He indicated the company Breivik Geofarm as a place of work, where he worked as a director. According to the publication VG (Verdens Gang newspaper - Gazeta.Ru), Breivik founded the company in 2009, she grew vegetables. Now the Facebook page of the alleged perpetrator is closed.
It has one entry: "One person who has faith is equal in strength to 100 thousand who have only interests." Now Breivik is being interrogated by the police.
There is no doubt that the terrorist attack in Oslo and the shooting of the youth camp are connected. Police believe that several people organized the attacks. Now the authorities are looking for Breivik's accomplices, the searches took place at the address from which he accessed Twitter and Facebook.
Police sources believe both the Oslo bombings and the Utøya shooting were attempts on the life of the country's prime minister. He was supposed to arrive at the camp of the youth wing of his party on Friday evening. As a result, the prime minister worked from home, a government spokesman said, and was not at government headquarters or Utoya on Friday. After the Oslo bombings, Stoltenberg gave only telephone interviews: the police advised him not to appear in public for the time being. On Saturday morning, the Prime Minister held an emergency press conference.
“Never since World War II has our country suffered so much,” he said. The official called Friday's events "a nightmare and a tragedy of the nation."
"The democratic foundations of Norway", according to the Prime Minister, will not be shaken. Stoltenberg promised the country "even more democracy."
“You will not destroy us. You will not destroy our democracy and ideals,” he said in front of television cameras. The official also said that he sees no reason yet to raise the threat level in the country. Nevertheless, on Saturday it became known that the Norwegian authorities decided to restore border control with the countries of the Schengen zone.
Officially, about which groups may be involved in the attacks, the law enforcement agencies and the authorities of Norway did not declare. Norwegian TV channel NRK reported that an unknown Islamist group, Global Jihad Supporters, published a message on its website saying that the explosion and attack on the youth political forum was a reaction to the publication by the Norwegian media of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
However, after the detention of the ethnic Norwegian Breivik, few people believe in the version of the attack by Islamists in Norway.
“If you compare Norway with other countries, I would not say that we have any big problem with right-wing extremists. But we have certain groupings, we track them. Our police are aware of their existence,” said Prime Minister Stoltenberg.
Jakob Godziminski, an expert at the Norwegian International Institute, told Reuters that Norwegian far-right groups were more likely to be involved in the tragic events than Islamists. He noted that in Norway, as well as throughout Europe, due to problems with immigrants, right-wing ideas have become more popular. “It is strange for Islamists to attack a local political event. Attack on youth camp tells us it's something else. If the Islamists wanted to attack us, they would have planted bombs in the closest to the center of Oslo shopping center, and not to a remote island, ”the expert believes.
Act of terrorism in Norway on July 22, 2011- two terrorist attacks that occurred on the same day in Oslo and on the island of Utøya. According to the police, the attacks are connected.
Norwegian citizen 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik was arrested for shooting at Utøya. According to the lawyer of the suspect, Geir Lippestad, he confessed to committing both attacks.
KilledWounded
69* 62*** Of these, 65 were shot dead by Breivik on the spot, 1 drowned trying to escape, 1 died falling off a cliff, 1 died of wounds on the way from the island, 1 died in the hospital.
** According to some sources - 66. The indictment refers to 32 camp participants wounded by Breivik. One of the reports on the events of July 22 says that more than 100 people suffered on Utoya, including various injuries (bruises, cuts, etc.) while escaping, and also suffered from hypothermia in the water, the temperature of which was about + 14 degrees.
Of these, 8 were immigrants (not including a Georgian citizen who was visiting Norway).
The average age of those killed (not including three people over 30 years old) is 17.7 years.
Breivik fired 121 shots from a 9mm Glock 34 pistol and 171 shots from a Ruger Mini-14 rifle. At the time of his arrest, 374 pistol and 765 rifle cartridges remained in his arsenal.
All those killed and wounded on Utoya were, according to Breivik's classification, category B traitors(heads and board members of the regional branches of the AUF ("Workers' Youth League", the youth wing of the Workers' Party (WP), their deputies, activists of the organization) and traitorscategory C(ordinary members of the AUF and sympathizers).
Breivik failed to execute category A traitors- former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, who was his main target (she left the island before Breivik arrived), and the head of the AUF Eskila Pedersen a, who, along with several of his closest assistants, fled the island in a boat after hearing the gunfire.
Training
Breivik reportedly began voicing his ideas on internet forums in the summer of 2009. For the attack itself, he began to prepare in the fall of 2009. At the same time, he visited his friend Peter in Hungary and found that the Hungarian women are very beautiful, but he refused all connections with them, because this, in his own opinion, could interfere with his "Great Purpose".
Also in early 2010, he spoke with prominent British anti-Islamist blogger Paul Ray and, the latter suggested, may have drawn inspiration from Ray's blogs. However, despite their communication, the blogger refused to add Breivik as a friend on the social network Facebook, as he did not like the appearance of the future terrorist.
According to the investigation, there is reason to believe that Breivik was closely associated with the British radicals. According to Foreign Policy, in London in 2002, he co-founded the Knights of the Temple with nine other people, whose goal was "to seize control of Western European countries and implement a conservative political agenda." As noted by The Guardian, it was then that he met his mentor, who called himself Richard, in honor of Richard the Lionheart.
Attempt to buy weapons in the Czech Republic
In August - September 2010, Breivik spent 6 days in Prague, where he tried to purchase firearms. However, he, in his own words, was a little afraid of the trip, as he heard that in Central Europe "the most cruel and cynical criminals." On the second day of his stay, he received a direction for mining, so that no one would suspect him of preparing a terrorist attack. Anders was going to buy a Kalashnikov assault rifle and a Glock 17 pistol, as well as hand grenades. He also carried a fake police ID and a uniform that he had illegally purchased online and was wearing at the time of the attack. In the end, he failed to carry out his plan and he went back to Norway.
Buying weapons in Norway
Anders also tried to buy weapons in Berlin and Belgrade, but again nothing came of it. (In total, Breivik visited 20 countries at the stage of preparation for the attack). Then he decided to obtain a self-loading rifle and pistol legally in Norway. Legally, this did not cause problems, as he had no criminal record, had a hunting license, and also owned a Benelli Nova pump-action shotgun for seven years. Upon his return from Europe, Breivik obtained permission to own a Ruger Mini-14 self-loading carbine for the purpose of "hunting deer"; he bought it in autumn 2010 for 1300 euros. It was more difficult to obtain a permit for a pistol, since for this it was necessary not only to be a member of the shooting club, but also to show that he was attending.
Breivik visited the shooting club in Oslo 15 times from November 2010 to January 2011 and then he was given permission to buy a Glock 17 pistol. He also used the computer shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for shooting practice.
In March 2011, Breivik bought components for an explosive device online from a fertilizer salesman in Wroclaw, Poland. On May 18, 2009, Anders Behring Breivik registered his own vegetable growing company called Breivik Geofarm, which explained the purchase of such an amount of fertilizer .. Later, the Pole was involved in the case of terrorist attacks as a witness.
On April 27, 2011, he assembled his first explosive device. During May-June, he collected 20 explosive devices of various capacities. On June 13, 2011, he made his first test explosion in a vacant lot in the suburbs of Oslo. On July 15, 2011, he rented a Volkswagen Crafter. On July 18, he installed the most powerful explosive device he had assembled inside. On July 21, he ordered a prostitute for 2000 euros at home, with whom he spent the whole night. On the morning of July 22, he visited a church in Oslo.
Terrorist attack in Oslo
On July 22, 2011 at 15:25:22 (local time), an explosion occurred in the Government Quarter of Oslo. According to police, the radio-controlled bomb weighing about 500 kilograms was planted in a Volkswagen Crafter car and was made from agricultural fertilizers based on ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel.
The first message about the explosion was received by the police a minute and a half later, at 15:26. Two minutes later, the first police cars and ambulances arrived at the scene.
Seven people died from the explosion on the spot, another died in the hospital from his injuries, 209 people were injured, 15 of them seriously. Among the victims were members of the government. Nearby buildings were damaged by the explosion, including the oil ministry and the Verdens Gang tabloid office building. A fire broke out in one of them, and windows were shattered in the buildings on a neighboring street by a blast wave. The police cordoned off the scene and urged everyone to leave the city center if possible.
Massacre at Utøya
An hour and a half later (that is, around 17:00 local time) after the explosion in the center of Oslo, Anders Behring Breivik in a car reached ferry crossing off the island of Utøya. At this time, the traditional youth summer camp of the ruling Workers' Party was held on the island, in which 655 people aged 14-25 took part.
Dressed in the uniform of a police officer, Anders showed a fake ID and announced the need for a safety briefing in connection with the terrorist attack in the capital. Gathering around him at about 17:22 pm several dozen young Social Democrats, he opened aimed fire at them; he killed 67 people (including one citizen of Georgia and the half-brother of the Crown Princess of Norway). The shooting, which lasted about 73 minutes, caused panic and many people jumped into the water in an attempt to escape. Two young people drowned trying to swim away from the island. About 110 people received various injuries, including non-gunshot wounds. Two cases are known when Breivik spared his victims: an 11-year-old boy whose father he had just killed and a 22-year-old young man who begged the terrorist to save his life.
After the arrival of the police (counter-terrorist unit Beredskapstroppen), the terrorist surrendered at 18:35, two minutes after the arrival of the police on the island. At the same time, his first words after the arrest were "I'm done ..." During the massacre, Breivik was wearing headphones and listened to the soundtrack from the trailer for the film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers arranged by "Requiem for a Tower" (composer Clint Mansell, Darren's version of the soundtrack for the film Aronofsky Requiem for a Dream), using it as a means to suppress fear. Police also suspect he was videotaping the shooting.
International reaction
Effects
On August 19, 2011, the Polish police arrested a 17-year-old teenager for threatening to repeat the act of Anders Behring Breivik and arrange an explosion in Warsaw.
On August 28, Norwegian police arrested a far-right nationalist on charges of illegal possession of weapons and explosives.
On September 2, the Norwegian police decided to talk to British radicals and anti-Islamists, whom the terrorist mentioned in his manifesto and in his testimony. 186 shell casings found on the island
Investigation and trial
On August 24, 2012, the court found the "Norwegian shooter" Anders Breivik sane, guilty of the death of 77 people in 2011 and sentenced him to 21 years in prison. Breivik himself does not hope to ever be released.
Until the trial, he was kept under special supervision in solitary confinement in a special prison, which during the Second World War was a Nazi camp.