COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Norwegian authorities said on Tuesday that they had given up hope of finding survivors of a landslide that took away houses in a residential area almost a week ago and killed seven people.
Three people are still missing in the December 30 disaster that destroyed at least nine buildings with more than 30 apartments in the town of Ask, 25 kilometers northeast of Oslo. The landslide was one of the worst in modern Norwegian history.
“It is with great sadness that I have to say that we no longer have any hope of finding people alive after the landslide,” said Ida Melbo Oeystese, local police chief.
“We did everything in our power. But this natural disaster had considerable forces. “Those who died died relatively quickly,” she added visibly.
Search personnel will continue to “search for all who are missing,” Oeystese said.
The police chief spoke hours after a small puppy was found alive in the rubble, delivering hope to rescuers. Police spokesman Ivar Myrboe said the dog was found in good condition late Monday in an area where rescuers were working.
Another minor landslide just before noon on Tuesday forced search terms to evacuate the site and no one was injured, police said. One rescuer, Kenneth Wangen, said the landslide was “not dramatic” and that search terms had been warned in advance by drones and other emergency personnel.
Geologists will assess the site before the search continues, authorities said.
Since the original landslide, search teams with dogs in the freezing point have been looking through the rubble while helicopters and drones with heat-tracking cameras have flown over the devastated hill in the town of 5,000 residents.
At least 1,000 people were evacuated. Some buildings now hang on the edge of a deep gorge, which has become 700 meters long (300 meters) and 300 meters wide.
The exact cause of the landslide is not yet known, but the area has very fast clay that can change rapidly from solid to liquid form when disturbed. Experts said the rapid clay, coupled with excessive rainfall and damp winter weather, may have contributed to the landslide.
In 2005, Norwegian authorities warned people not to build residential buildings in the Ask area, saying it was a high-risk area for landslides, but later in the decade, houses were built there.
116 people died in 1893 due to a landslide in central Norway. It was reportedly up to 40 times larger than the one in Ask, where between 1.4 million and 2 million cubic meters of land fell.
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said she received the news of the abandoned search for survivors “with great sadness” and that her thoughts were with the friends and families of the victims.