Seven dead in Oslo terror blast

A powerful bomb tore into the heart of Norway today, killing seven people and injuring at least 15 as it ripped open buildings, including the prime minister’s office.

The blast occurred as a gunman dressed in a police uniform opened fire at a Labour Party youth camp at Utoya, an island outside Oslo, shooting several youths.

Party spokesman Per Gunnar Dahl said unconfirmed reports claimed five people were hit as panicked youths tried to flee the island by swimming.

Police said they suspect the blast and the youth camp shooting several miles outside the capital are linked.

In Oslo, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was working at home and was unharmed by the bombing, according to senior adviser Oivind Ostang.

The square where the bomb exploded was covered in twisted metal and shattered glass, and carpeted in documents expelled from the surrounding buildings, which house government offices and the headquarters of some of Norway’s leading newspapers.

Most of the windows were shattered in the 20-floor high rise where the prime minister and his administration works.

Oslo police said the explosion was caused by “one or more” bombs, but declined to speculate on who was behind the attack. They later sealed off the nearby offices of broadcaster TV 2 after discovering a suspicious package.

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

An AP reporter who was in the office of Norwegian news agency NTB 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.

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

Witness Ole Tommy Pedersen was standing at a bus stop 100 yards from the government high-rise at 3.30pm (1430 BST) when the explosion occurred.

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

Norway news agency NTB said one person was arrested after the youth camp shooting.

The European Union and Nato strongly condemned the attacks.

Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called the blast a “heinous act.”

About 400 Norwegian soldiers are serving as part of the Nato-led international force in Afghanistan. Ten Norwegians have died in the war.

Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, expressed his “utmost shock” over the blast.

Barroso said that an attack of this magnitude was not “something one would expect in Norway, famously associated with peace at home and peacemaking abroad”.

Police Inspector Bjoern Erik Sem-Jacobsen said a suspect in the Utoya shooting had pulled out a gun and started firing into the crowd of youths. There were unconfirmed reports that five people were wounded.

Acting Police Chief Sveinung Sponheim told broadcaster NRK that investigators believed the blast and shooting were linked.

The United States quickly condemned the bombing. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Heide Bronke Fulton called the violence “despicable”.

The attacks come as Norway grapples with a home-grown 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.

US President Barack Obama said the bombing is a reminder that the world has a role in stopping such terror from happening. He also expressed his condolences to Norway's people.

Oslo is known for the Nobel Peace Prize that’s awarded there and Obama was the recipient in 2009.