A massive landslide destroyed homes overnight in a village in Norway, near the capital Oslo, leaving 12 people unconscious and 10 injured, police and local media said Wednesday. Video footage from the scene showed an entire mountain in Ask, 15 miles northeast of the capital, in the municipality of Gijerdrum. The houses were crushed and buried in black mud.
Snow fell during the morning as emergency services evacuated the injured and tried to keep those homes still safe. As the day progressed some of the houses were left behind by a slide on the edge of the crater.
By Frederick Hagen / NTB / Reuters
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, who traveled to a village of about 1,000 people on Wednesday, called the landslide “the biggest” the country has ever seen.
“It’s a dramatic experience to be here,” Solberg told reporters.
“The situation is still so volatile with mud that it is not possible to do anything other than rescue the helicopter,” he added.
NTB ScanPix by Reuters
Norwegian media said 700 people had been evicted from their homes, and the municipality warned that as many as 1,500 people needed to leave the area due to safety concerns.
Late in the evening, police reported that 12 people were still unaccounted for.
“We do not know if these people are in the landslide area, if they are on leave or unable to contact police in any other way,” the force said in a statement.
Police said 10 people were injured, one of whom was moved to Oslo with serious injuries.
“Police are calling this a disaster,” Roger Patterson, the operation’s chief, told broadcaster NRK.
“People had emergency calls that their whole house was running,” he said.
“There are dramatic reports and the situation is serious,” Petersen said.
According to the Norwegian Director of Water Resources and Energy (NVE) what happened was a so-called “quick clay slide” of about 328 to 766 yards.
“This is the largest landslide in Norway in recent times, taking into account the number of houses involved and the number of evacuees,” NVE spokeswoman Laila Hoivic told AFP.
Quick clay is a type of clay found in Norway and Sweden that can break down and turn into a liquid when under extreme pressure.
“The area has been surveyed before, and is known to have fast soils. Currently the area is less likely to have similar large slides,” Hoivick said.
The Swedish daily Ton Ftonbladet reports that Sweden is sending specially trained personnel to help with the rescue operation.
“We will help find the missing and protect the homes,” Stephen Carlson, operations leader for Gothenburg’s emergency services, told the newspaper.
King Harold of Norway said in a statement that the accident had left an “imprint on him”.
“My thoughts are with the affected, the injured, those who have lost their homes and now live in fear and uncertainty of the full extent of the tragedy,” he said.
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