Police and local media said on Wednesday that a major landslide destroyed houses in a town in Norway near the capital Oslo overnight. Video recordings of the scene showed that an entire hill in Ask, in the municipality of Gjerdrum, 25 km northeast of the capital, had collapsed. Houses were left crushed and buried in dark mud.
Snow fell during the morning when the emergency services evacuated the injured and tried to secure the houses that were still standing. Some houses were left on the edge of the crater left by the slide, and a few fell over the edge as the day went on.
Fredrik Hagen / NTB / via REUTERS
The Prime Minister of Norway, Erna Solberg, who traveled to the town with about 1,000 people on Wednesday, described the landslide as ‘one of the biggest’ the country has seen.
“It’s a dramatic experience to be here,” Solberg told reporters, expressing particular concern about those still missing.
“The situation is still so unstable with the mud that it is not yet possible to do anything other than helicopter rescues,” she added.
NTB SCANPIX via Reuters
Norwegian media said 700 people had been evacuated from their homes, and the municipality had warned that as many as 1,500 needed the area to leave safety.
In the early evening, the police reported that there were not yet twelve people.
“We do not know if these people are in the landslide area, if they are not on holiday, or otherwise unable to contact the police,” the force said in a statement.
Police said ten people were injured, one of whom was transferred to Oslo with serious injuries.
“The police call it a disaster,” Roger Pettersen, chief operating officer, told NRK.
Emergency calls came from people who said their entire house was moving, he said.
“There are dramatic reports and the situation is serious,” Pettersen said.
According to the Norwegian Directorate of Water Resources and Energy (NPA), there was a so-called “fast clay slide” of about 328 to 766 meters.
“This is the largest landslide in Norway in recent times, given the number of homes involved and the number of evacuated,” NPA spokesperson Laila Hoivik told AFP
Rapid clay is a type of clay found in Norway and Sweden, which can collapse and become liquid if overemphasized.
“The area has been surveyed before and it is known to contain fast clay. The possibility of similar large slides in the area is currently small,” Hoivik said.
The Swedish daily Aftonbladet reported that Sweden is sending specially trained personnel to help with the rescue effort.
“We will help with the search for missing people and the security of buildings,” Stefan Karlsson, operational leader of the emergency services in Gothenburg, told the newspaper.
The King of Norway Harald said in a statement that the accident made a deep impression on him.
“My thoughts are with all those affected, the injured, those who have lost their homes and are now living in fear and uncertainty over the full extent of the disaster,” he said.