Police ‘sorry’ for slow response to Breivik’s youth camp slaughter

Norway’s police have apologised for not acting more quickly to stop the massacre of 69 people at a youth camp last summer by anti-Islamic gunman Anders Behring Breivik.

Victims’ families have strongly criticised police for their slow response, complaining too many officers were on holiday and that no helicopter was ready to dispatch.

It took Oslo’s special police tactical team about an hour to travel by car and boat to the Labour Party camp on an island 25 miles from Oslo.

“On behalf of the Norwegian police I would like to apologise that we did not succeed in apprehending the attacker earlier,” police director Oeystein Maeland told a news conference. He said a collapse in communication and a police boat so overloaded with officers that it took on water were key factors that delayed the response.

Breivik, 33, has admitted setting off a bomb at an Oslo government building before going on a shooting spree at Utoeya island to punish “traitors” with immigrant-friendly attitudes. His trial on terrorism and murder charges will begin on 16 April.

The chief of the police district where the massacre occurred, Sissel Hammer, said police “theoretically” could have shortened Breivik’s attack by 16 minutes if the response had been perfect.