Breivik trial: Court told bomb left downtown Oslo like a ‘war zone’

ANDERS Behring Breivik listened silently yesterday as others described the mayhem caused by his bombing of Oslo’s government district, a scene one witness described as a “war zone.”

Forensic experts detailed the injuries to four of the eight victims killed by the 950-kg fertiliser bomb on 22 July last year. Breivik admits to the bombing and a subsequent shooting massacre at a Labour Party youth camp that left 69 people dead, most of them teenagers.

“More than 100 body parts were found in the government district,” said Ole Morten Stoerseth, a police official tasked with identifying the blast victims.

Relatives of victims sobbed during the presentations. Pictures of the victims’ injuries were not shown in court but distributed to the judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers as well as the psychiatrists who are examining Breivik during the trial.

Breivik claims the attacks were “necessary” and that the victims had betrayed Norway by embracing multiculturalism.

He remained mostly expressionless during the hearing yesterday, but smiled when a security guard, who was inside the government high-rise when the bomb exploded, called Breivik’s motives “totally absurd”.

Describing the confusion that followed the blast, police operations leader Thor Langli said the initial reports he received suggested there were two suspects, and two other bombs about to explode.

Mr Langli recalled standing next to the head of an anti-terror squad in Oslo when he received a call about the second attack at the Labour Party’s youth camp on Utoya, 25 miles from the Norwegian capital.

“I saw on his face it was something serious,” Mr Langli said. “While I was watching him he said out of the corner of his mouth ‘shooting on Utoya.”’

Another report came in that about 50 people had been shot. When the anti-terror unit arrived at Utoya, some 70 minutes after the first reports, 100 people had been shot.

The militant nationalist testified last week he had expected to be shot by police after the bombing. But no-one stopped him as he walked to a getaway car parked near the bomb site.

Mr Langli said he first got a report of a suspect with a “non-Nordic” appearance leaving the scene of the bombing. He then got another report of a Nordic-looking suspect, which made him believe there were two suspects.

When he heard about the Utoya shooting, he started thinking the bomb and the massacre were the actions of the same person.

“I thought there was a connection. But I didn’t have any evidence for that,” Mr Langli said. Turning to Breivik, he added: “I could not imagine there being two people with so many crazy ideas.”

Two examinations conducted before the trial reached opposite conclusions on whether Breivik is psychotic, the key issue to be resolved during the trial.

Security guard Tor Inge Kristoffersen, who was in the basement of the government building struck by the car bomb, testified that he and a colleague used security cameras to get a closer look at the white van that Breivik had parked in front of building.

“The moment we had zoomed in on the plate the car exploded,” said Mr Kristoffersen. He described the scene as a “war zone”.

Svein Olav Christensen, an explosives expert for a defence agency, showed pictures of the bomb site to the court. The fertiliser and diesel bomb had ripped holes in the concrete platform underneath the vehicle, and also in the subterranean floor below.

Mr Christensen said the bomb would have had to be “much larger” to bring down the structure.

The trial continues.