Island gunman's 90-minuterampage

Police arrived at the Norway island massacre an hour and a half after a gunman first opened fire, because they did not have quick access to a helicopter and could not find a boat to get to the scene just several hundred yards offshore, it has emerged.

The assailant surrendered when police finally reached him on the island of Utoya, but 82 people died before that.

Survivors of the shooting spree described hiding and fleeing into the water to escape the gunman, but a police briefing yesterday detailed for the first time how long the terror lasted – and how long victims waited for help.

Friday’s shooting came on the heels of what police said was an “Oklahoma city-type” bombing in Oslo’s centre, targeting a government building, allegedly perpetrated by a home-grown assailant and used the same mix of fertiliser and fuel that blew up a building in the US in 1995.

At least 92 people were killed in the twin attacks that police are blaming on the same suspect, 32-year-old Norwegian Anders Breivik.

“He has confessed to the factual circumstances,” Breivik’s defence lawyer, Geir Lippestad, told public broadcaster NRK. Mr Lippestad said his client had also made some comments about his motives “but I don’t want to talk about it now”.

Norwegian news agency NTB said the suspect wrote a 1,500-page manifesto before the attack in which he attacked multi-culturalism and Muslim immigration.

The manifesto also described how to acquire explosives and contained pictures of Breivik, NTB said. Oslo police declined to comment on the report.

A SWAT team was dispatched to the island more than 50 minutes after people at a campground said they heard shooting across the lake, said police chief Sveinung Sponheim.

The drive to the lake took about 20 minutes, and once there, the team took another 20 minutes to find a boat.

Footage filmed from a helicopter that showed the gunman firing into the water added to the impression that police were slow to the scene. They chose to drive, Mr Sponheim said, because their helicopter was not on standby.

“There were problems with transport to Utoya” where the youth-wing of Norway’s left-leaning Labour Party was holding a retreat, Mr Sponheim said. “It was difficult to get a hold of boats.”

At least 82 people were killed on the island, but police said four or five people were still missing.

Divers have been searching the surrounding waters, and Mr Sponheim said the missing may have drowned. Police earlier said there was still an unexploded device on the island, but it later turned out to be fake.

The attack followed the explosion of a bomb packed into a panel truck outside the building that houses the prime minister’s office in Oslo, according to a police official

Seven people were killed and police said there were still body parts in the building. The Oslo University Hospital said it had so far received 11 wounded from the bombing and 19 people from the camp shooting.

Police have charged Breivik under Norway’s terror law. He will appear before a court tomorrow, which will decide whether police can continue to hold him as the investigation continues.

Authorities have not given a motive for the attacks, but both were in areas connected to the Labour Party, which leads a coalition government.

Even police confessed to not knowing much about the suspect, but details trickled out about him all day. He had ties to a right-leaning political party, he posted on Christian fundamentalist websites, and he rented a farm where police found 9,000-11,000lbs of fertiliser.

Police said the suspect was talking to them and had admitted to firing weapons on the island.

“He has had a dialogue with the police the whole time, but he’s a very demanding suspect,” Mr Sponheim said.

Yesterday a farm supply store said it had alerted police that he bought six tonnes of fertiliser, which can be used in home-made bombs – at least one tonne more than was found at the farm, according to police.

Police and soldiers were searching for evidence and potential bombs at the farm south of Oslo yesterday.

Havard Nordhagen Olsen, a neighbour, said Breivik moved in about one moth ago, next to his house, and said he seemed like “a regular guy”.

Mazyar Keshvari, a spokesman for Norway’s Progress Party – which is conservative but within the political mainstream – said the suspect was a paying member of the party’s youth wing from 1999 to 2004.

Prime minister Jens Stoltenberg called the tragedy peacetime Norway’s deadliest day.

“This is beyond comprehension. It’s a nightmare. It’s a nightmare for those who have been killed, for their mothers and fathers, family and friends,” he said.

Gun violence is rare in Norway, where the average policeman patrolling in the streets does not carry a firearm.

Reports that the assailant was motivated by political ideology were shocking to many Norwegians, who pride themselves on the openness of their society. Indeed, Norway is almost synonymous with the kind of free expression being exercised by the youth at the political retreat.

King Harald, Norway’s figurehead monarch, vowed yesterday that those values would remain unchanged.

“I remain convinced that the belief in freedom is stronger than fear. I remain convinced in the belief of an open Norwegian democracy and society. I remain convinced in the belief in our ability to live freely and safely in our own country,” he said.

The monarch, his wife and the prime minister led the nation in mourning, visiting grieving relatives of the scores of youths gunned down. Buildings around the capital lowered their flags to half-mast and people streamed to Oslo Cathedral to light candles and lay flowers.