BREAKING NEWS: Explosion at Norway Prime Ministers Office

[Eternal_Freedom]

It was being shown as "Breaking News" on the BBC while I was in the pub earlier (2300 GMT/UTC). But even then, it was a brief segment prefunctorily explaining the situation before returning to some talking-head MP yakking aboutt he debt compromise.

[Julhelm]

Deathtoll on the island is now said to be 80.

[Spin Echo]

So they've adjusted the number in Norwegian media to at least 80 killed at Utøya.

The better half and I have money on the explosion in Oslo simply being a diversion. There's only about one special platoon of policemen in Norway and they surely would have been deployed in the aftermath of the explosion.

[Raj Ahten]

80 people dead? That's.....a damn high total for a single shooter and the authorities are saying it will likely get higher. The island location may have been crucial in delaying police response. In any city or hell even most rural areas patrolmen would be trickling in to stop an active shooter. In any case I'm surprised the man was taken alive. Only thing I can think of was he ran out of ammunition before tactical team got there; usually these sorts kill themselves first or want to go out in a blaze of glory.

[Jim Raynor]

Yeah, the amount of people killed is truly shocking given only a single shooter. I don't think I've ever read of an incident like this on this scale. An article I read said that he may have had an automatic weapon.

[Sea Skimmer]

As many as 600 people were on the island which is only 500 yards across; you could hardly ask for a worse place to be subject to a massacre like this. The death toll will probably rise because a number of people were killed swimming away and bodies may have sunk to the bottom of the lake.

[FSTargetDrone]

Yeah, the amount of people killed is truly shocking given only a single shooter. I don't think I've ever read of an incident like this on this scale. An article I read said that he may have had an automatic weapon.

I think the most we've heard about in recent history were a few dozens (schools shootings, mostly) dead from a single shooter but this has to be some sort of grim new record? I can't find anything other than school shootings, certainly nothing approaching these numbers.

As many as 600 people were on the island which is only 500 yards across; you could hardly ask for a worse place to be subject to a massacre like this. The death toll will probably rise because a number of people were killed swimming away and bodies may have sunk to the bottom of the lake.

I think some video of what appeared to be floating bodies appeared briefly on CNN earlier on Friday. It seemed they cut away as soon as they realized what was on the screen.

[K. A. Pital]

87 confirmed dead. Not too hard to do with firearms, they are rather efficient at putting humans to death.

[Alyeska]

His being dressed as a Police Officer also probably made it easier to kill the people on the island. They might have thought him to be safe.

[Sea Skimmer]

I think the most we've heard about in recent history were a few dozens (schools shootings, mostly) dead from a single shooter but this has to be some sort of grim new record? I can't find anything other than school shootings, certainly nothing approaching these numbers.

The most in the last several decades is 57 people killed by a South Korean policeman in Uiryeong with an M2 carbine and several hand grenades who drove town to town killing people in 1982 while in uniform. Below him a number of mass shooters have managed to kill more then thirty people, but most such incidents involve less then ten deaths.

I think some video of what appeared to be floating bodies appeared briefly on CNN earlier on Friday. It seemed they cut away as soon as they realized what was on the screen.

Norwegian police have already said they recovered a number of floating bodies, they have divers searching the bottom but it will take a long time to be certain all are found.

His being dressed as a Police Officer also probably made it easier to kill the people on the island. They might have thought him to be safe.

It seems shooter called a crowd over to himself before opening fire after announcing he had arrived as emergency security.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Yes, and they found unexploded bombs on the island, so he probably had some satchel charges that he used in addition to the submachinegun and shotgun he was armed with (as well as an "automatic pistol", apparently). Death toll is expected to increase and may exceed 100 according to the latest police reports. He apparently was able to use the fact he was in uniform to summon everyone on the island into one place and then just kept firing until he didn't see any more targets, then went hunting. Then shot people fleeing while they were helpess and vulnerable and silhouetted in the water. I'm really concerned that as a white ultranationalist, and due to the international connections white supremacy has, we could see attempts at copycat attacks in other countries.

[Shroom Man 777]

It's a pretty fucked up scenario. Trapped on a small island, with a psycho-killer with a gun. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. And he's just taking his time and killing everyone. Totally messed up.

[Big Orange]

I knew the death/injury toll was going to get worse when the dust settled around Sunday or Monday, but I had no idea it was going to get that bad this quickly, and it's truly horrific that the victims who bore the brunt of this senseless onslaught (worse than the spree killings by Woo Bum-kon in 1982 and Martin Bryant in 1996) were mostly older kids and very young adults. I'm going to ignore the main channels, it's just too horrible and surreal to take in, I've read/seen enough.

A Neo-Nazi, eh, blowing away claims by bigots who fingered Muslims and tinfoil hatters who cited Mossad? So he did his "duty" by... blowing and shooting up... loads of white Nordic/Germanic people.

[Dooey Jo]

87?! Jesus fucking Christ, it was "just" ten when I went to bed last night.
Fucking paramilitary nazi shitheads.

A Neo-Nazi, eh, blowing away claims by bigots who fingered Muslims and tinfoil hatters who cited Mossad? So he did his "duty" by... blowing and shooting up... loads of white Nordic/Germanic people.

Yes, left-wing people. I don't yet have any desire to delve into the delusions of this particular psycho, but to many of these supposed people leftists are even worse than other races.

[Serafina]

I'd say that he wanted to eradicate the next generation of leftists who corrupted his country by following socialist principles and not kicking out Muslims.

This is extremely shocking, my condolences to those who knew the victims

[hongi]

He doesn't seem to be a neo-Nazi to me. I've read one of his posts where he compares Islam, Nazism and Marxism together as hate-filled ideologies (and he thinks of them as bad things).

[Serafina]

He doesn't seem to be a neo-Nazi to me. I've read one of his posts where he compares Islam, Nazism and Marxism together as hate-filled ideologies (and he thinks of them as bad things).

Not all right-wingers are Neo-Nazis.

[K. A. Pital]

Being an ultraconservative Christian militant doesn't require of one to be a neo-nazi.

[Dooey Jo]

He doesn't seem to be a neo-Nazi to me. I've read one of his posts where he compares Islam, Nazism and Marxism together as hate-filled ideologies (and he thinks of them as bad things).

Note however that with many of these extreme nationalists, their objections to Nazism are little more than lip service to get wider sympathies. They just happen to agree with mostly everything it stands for, using "culture" as a euphemism for "race".

[Edi]

A Neo-Nazi, eh, blowing away claims by bigots who fingered Muslims and tinfoil hatters who cited Mossad? So he did his "duty" by... blowing and shooting up... loads of white Nordic/Germanic people.

Who were social democrats and thus presumably supported multiculturalism and allowing all kinds of people who the shooter disapproved of into the country. Get a deranged enough ultranationalist and that kind of reasoning makes all sorts of sense to them even though it is insane to anyone normal.

[Eleas]

A Neo-Nazi, eh, blowing away claims by bigots who fingered Muslims and tinfoil hatters who cited Mossad? So he did his "duty" by... blowing and shooting up... loads of white Nordic/Germanic people.

Who were social democrats and thus presumably supported multiculturalism and allowing all kinds of people who the shooter disapproved of into the country. Get a deranged enough ultranationalist and that kind of reasoning makes all sorts of sense to them even though it is insane to anyone normal.

Well, yeah.

They were Arbeiderpartiets ungdom, thus leftist. Thus not interesting to the same newsservices who played their not inconsiderable part in inciting nationalist/racist hate towards muslims, because it's all about narratives, and the narrative will show that it was actually a rightist conservative who did the deed against the evil socialist kids sympathetic to those nefarious swarthy muslims.

This rightist conservative did, in fact, successfully execute a proportionately greater attack on Norway than 9/11 in terms of lives lost. Twice as many people died per-capita, and in a way that could easily be repeated. As there is no vested interest in the US or UK media to report such a thing, I had to go through Swedish and Norwegian news and through the fucking SSU to get any sort of picture.

[Norseman]

The suspected shooter was a right wing blogger apparently he thought that immigrants had to be culturally integrated and that multiple cultures in one state would lead to disaster. He also believed that the left-wing government of Norway was betraying the country by allowing large numbers of unsuitable immigrants to enter it. Well read and apparently quite intelligent.

I am really feeling creeped out, really, really creeped out.

[CJvR]

A Neo-Nazi, eh, blowing away claims by bigots who fingered Muslims and tinfoil hatters who cited Mossad? So he did his "duty" by... blowing and shooting up... loads of white Nordic/Germanic people.

Well up until he allowed himself to get arrested it was really AQ style terror. Big, coordinated, spectacular & bloody.

[K. A. Pital]

Norway Labour Party. Dastardly left-wingers! Apparently, a photo from Utøya in 2009:

Danger to Christ and Country, nothing more and nothing less.

[Tiriol]

The suspected shooter was a right wing blogger apparently he thought that immigrants had to be culturally integrated and that multiple cultures in one state would lead to disaster. He also believed that the left-wing government of Norway was betraying the country by allowing large numbers of unsuitable immigrants to enter it. Well read and apparently quite intelligent.

I am really feeling creeped out, really, really creeped out.

Why? Many evil things in this world are done by intelligent, well-educated men and women who should know better, at least from our point of view. All the education and all the intelligence in the world will not help one if one lacks compassion and empathy for fellow human beings.

The news from Norway are very depressing. Little by little the Nordic "satety zone" crumbles away. My sympathies go with the families of the victims. Hopefully the Norwegian authorities get to the bottom of this and punish the perpetrators to the full extent their legislation allows. No vigilante justice, no mob, just dispassionate, cold, fact-based judgment based on law.