Total death toll from two attacks cut to 76

Published on Monday 25 July 2011 18:40

NORWEGIAN police have surpisingly revised down the number of island killings from 86 to 68 but increased the bomb-death toll by one to eight - making an overall figure of 76 lives claimed in the attacks.

Police cited difficulties in gathering information in the wake of the shootings for the death toll revisal and said there was still no exact picture of how many died in the Oslo bombing.

Officers arrived at the island massacre about an hour and a half after the gunman first opened fire on his victims.

Police were delayed because they did not have quick access to a helicopter and were unable to find a boat to make their way to the scene several hundred meters offshore.

However, Sissel Hammer, head of the Nordre Buskerud police district, insisted that armed officers "always require time" in responding to emergencies.

Speaking at a news conference in the Norwegian capital yesterday, he said: "I completely understand that, for those caught in the line of fire, as well as for their relatives, the response time felt long.

"However, I ask for understanding of the fact that the deployment of armed police personnel will always require time. Personnel need time to be equipped and armed as well as transported to the scene."

Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that a Polish company sold chemical fertiliser to the Norwegian bomber and gunman, Anders Behring Breivik, but the transaction was entirely legal and police have made no arrests.

Pawel Bialek, the deputy head of the Polish internal security agency, said: "According to our experts, the materials bought in Poland were not critical for the construction of the bomb.

"At this stage, the information and materials we have do not indicate that the relations with the terrorist were anything other than commercial.

Mr Bialek said the owner of the company, which he did not name, was co-operating fully with the authorities in their investigation.

He added that the firm had sold more than 100kg of one substance and several hundred grams of another.

The transaction had been made over the internet and there was no evidence that Breivik had ever visited Poland, Mr Bialek said.