Huge Explosion Rocks Oslo, Capital of Norway
A huge explosion has rocked Oslo, Norway. Eyewitnesses say it was a bomb targeting Government buildings. So far police have confirmed that there are 2 people dead and scores injured in the blast.
Olso is the capital of the Scandinavian country Norway and rarely hits the headlines.
Today though a huge blast erupted from the center of Oslo near to the Prime Ministers offices, first indications are that he wasn’t there at the time. Prime Minister Stoltenberg told Norwegian TV that all government ministers were safe.
Eyewitnesses said that the first thing that came to mind when they heard the explosion was ‘a bomb’. Windows were blown out in the immediate area and some buildings are a twisted version of how they looked a few hours earlier.
Police have confirmed the deaths of 2 people but are still hunting buildings and it is likely that the number will increase. No one has so far claimed responsibility for the blast.
Shortly after the explosion reports from the local media started to come through that there had been a shooting incident at a youth conference for the Labour Party in Utoeya, south of Oslo.
It is understood that a man dressed as a policeman started to shoot into the crowd wildly. TV2 reported that police had arrested the suspected gunman.
At this point it is not known if the two incidents were linked but it seems that they both were targeting the Government. The coincidence is unavoidable.
Norway is a member of NATO and has deployed troops in Afghanistan and Libya so some are already pointing the finger at the Islamic extremists.
The other group who could be to blame are local far-right extremists, but experts have said that they are unlikely to have the capability to stage large car bomb attacks. The the most likely explanation of how the plan was executed.
The third option is that the atrocity was carried out by a lone player, the attack at the island appears to have happened a couple of hours after the bombing. Just the right amount of time it would have taken to travel from one area to the other.
The other factor is that if it was a group then you would expect more than one gunman carrying out shootings as in Mumbai.
Photo: Lars Dahlin
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