Bomb causes deadly Oslo explosion; People trapped at site

A powerful bomb tore open several Oslo buildings, including the prime minister’s office today, killing at least one person.

Several people were also injured and government official Hans Kristian Amundsen told the BBC people were trapped at bomb site.

The state secretary said: “There are still people in the buildings” at the blast site.

Mr Amundsen said this situation is the worst his country has seen.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg is safe, as he was working at home at the time of the blast.

“There has been one or several powerful explosions in the government district in Oslo,” Oslo police said in a brief statement.

“So far, police cannot say anything about the scope of the damage, aside from that there’s been one or several explosions.”

Broadcaster NRK showed video of a blackened car lying on its side amid the debris.

Most of the windows in the 20-floor building were blown out, and the bottom floor appeared to be gutted.

Nearby offices were also heavily damaged and evacuated, including those housing some of Norway’s leading newspapers and news agency NTB.

Witness Ole Tommy Pedersen was standing at a bus stop about 100 yards from the building at around 3.30pm (2.30pm Irish time) when the explosion occurred.

“I saw three or four injured people being carried out of the building a few minutes later,” Mr Pedersen said.

An AP reporter who was in the NTB office said the building shook from the blast and all employees evacuated as the alarm went off. Down in the street, he saw one person with a bleeding leg being led away from the area.

The government building houses the offices of the prime minister and his administration. Several ministries are in surrounding buildings.

The blast comes as Norway grapples with a homegrown terror plot linked to al-Qaida. Two suspects are in jail awaiting charges.

Last week, a Norwegian prosecutor filed terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening Norwegian politicians with death if he is deported from the Scandinavian country.

The indictment centred on statements that Mullah Krekar – the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam – made to various news media, including American network NBC.

Terrorism has also been a concern in neighbouring Denmark since an uproar over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed six years ago.

Danish authorities say they have foiled several terror plots linked to the 2005 newspaper cartoons that triggered protests in Muslim countries.

Last month, a Danish appeals court on Wednesday sentenced a Somali man to 10 years in prison for breaking into the home of the cartoonist.