The landslide hit a residential area in the municipality of Gjerdrum, about 30 kilometers north of the capital Oslo. According to police, more than 900 people were evacuated from the area.
Rescue workers continued to search the area for children and adults fearing being trapped in mud and debris, police said.
“We are absolutely certain that there are people in the area, but we do not know if all 11 are there and if the number is smaller,” police spokesman Roger Pettersen told a news conference.
“We are still looking for survivors,” he said.
In the photos of the site was a large crater with destroyed buildings at the bottom. Other buildings hung on the edge of the crater, TV footage showed. The broadcaster NRK collapsed two more houses in the crater on Wednesday afternoon.
The Norwegian king Harald said that the landslide made a deep impression on him.
“My thoughts are with all those affected, injured or lost their homes, and those now living in fear and uncertainty over the full extent of the disaster,” the 83-year-old king said in a statement issued by the royal has been declared. palace.
Helicopters continued to hover over the area as it fell at night, sometimes dropping emergencies to the rubble of collapsed homes.
“People may be trapped … but at the same time we can not be sure, because it is the New Year’s holiday, which means people can be elsewhere,” Prime Minister Erna Solberg told reporters after visiting the site.
Locals talked about their experience.
“There were two big tremors that lasted a long time, and I assumed it was clearing snow or something like that,” Oeystein Gjerdrum (68) told NRK.
“Then the power suddenly went out, and a neighbor came to the door and said we should evacuate, so I woke up my three grandchildren and told them to get dressed quickly.”
Masses of earth are still moving in what was one of the largest clay slides in recent Norwegian history, Toril Hofshagen, the regional head of the Norwegian Directorate of Water Resources and Energy, said at a news conference.