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NORWAY-LANDSLIDE
Fifth body found in Norway mudslide, five still missing
OSLO, Jan 3, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Rescue workers have uncovered a fifth body from a landslide that buried homes in a village near Norway’s capital, police said Sunday, as the search goes on for five people still missing.
The tragedy occurred early on Wednesday when houses were destroyed and shifted hundreds of metres under a torrent of mud at the village of Ask, 25 kilometres (15 miles) northeast of Oslo.
“We are working hard in the depression created by the landslide,” the head of the rescue operation, Gøran Syversen, told a news conference Sunday.
“We have five teams working at the same time. They are doing very difficult work which is not without risk. Nevertheless, we are making good progress.”
Police said earlier that a fifth body had been found just before 6:00 am on Sunday. That follows three discovered on Friday and one on Saturday at the site.
Police on Saturday identified the body of the first person found on Friday as 31-year-old Eirik Grønolen.
The identities of the four other dead have not been released.
But police on Friday published a list of the names of all 10 people, including a two-year-old and a 13-year-old child, who went missing on Wednesday.
Ten people were also injured in the landslide, including one seriously who was transferred to Oslo for treatment.
About a thousand people of the town’s population of 5,000 have been evacuated, because of fears for the safety of their homes as the land continues to move.
“We are at a hotel,” one of the evacuees, Olav Gjerdingen, told AFP. “It is a completely surreal and terrible situation.”
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Search and rescue teams have been using sniffer dogs, helicopters and drones in a bid to find survivors.
“We are searching where we believe we might still find survivors,” said the head of the team of firefighters, Kenneth Wangen, adding that the search zone had been expanded.
The teams, who are also seeking to rescue family pets, were also digging channels in the ground to evacuate casualties.
The authorities have banned all aircraft from the disaster area until 3:00 pm Monday as they conduct aerial searches.
The rescuers received a visit Sunday from King Harald, his wife Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon, who lit candles for the victims in the church of Gjerdrum.
“This terrible event impacts us all. I sympathise with you who are beginning the new year with sadness and uncertainty”, the king said in televised statement.
The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) said the disaster was a “quick clay slide” of approximately 300 by 800 metres (yards).
Quick clay is a sort of clay found in Norway and Sweden that can collapse and turn to fluid when overstressed.
Prime Minister Erna Solberg described it as one of the biggest landslides the country had ever experienced.
BSS/AFP/BZC/2021HRS