Rescuers on Friday found a dead body and continued searching for nine other people, including a toddler and a 13-year-old, still missing days after a mudslide destroyed homes in a Norwegian village, the authorities said.
An entire hillside collapsed in Ask, 25km northeast of the capital, Oslo, overnight on Tuesday, burying homes or breaking them apart.
NOT IDENTIFIED
Photo: AP
“A dead body was discovered in the landslide,” police said without identifying the person.
The police statement said the discovery was made at about 2:30pm on Friday as Norwegian crews supported by colleagues from Sweden continued search operations in the snow-covered terrain.
The police published the names of the 10 people subject to the days-long search. Eight are adults, one is two years old and the last is 13 years old.
Norwegian media reported that a medical helicopter and ambulances were at the scene.
The authorities have banned all aircraft from the disaster area until 3pm on tomorrow as they conduct aerial searches.
OPTIMISM
“We still think we can find survivors in the landslide zone,” a rescue worker told TV2.
“The fact that a discovery was made suggests to us that we are in an area where there may be people,” the official said.
Local mayor Anders Ostensen told TV2 that he was trying to keep his hopes up.
“I choose to listen to the police when they say that the current operation is a rescue operation,” he said. “We want to have hope, but we see very well what the site looks like.”
Homes were buried under mud, others cut in two and some houses left teetering over a crater caused by the mudslide, with several falling over the edge.
QUICK CLAY
The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate said the disaster was a “quick clay slide” of about 300m by 800m.
Quick clay is a sort of clay found in Norway and Sweden that can collapse and turn to fluid when overstressed.
Police said that 10 people had been injured, including one seriously who was transferred to Oslo for treatment.
One-fifth of the 5,000-strong population of the municipality of Gjerdum, which includes Ask, have been evacuated from the area, as the ground was deemed unstable.
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg visited the village on Wednesday and described the landslide as “one of the largest” the country had seen. “It’s a dramatic experience to be here,” Solberg told reporters.
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