Rescuers find body after landslide in Norway

Rescuers find body after landslide in Norway

By Gwladys Fouche

A view of the damage as emergency services work during a rescue operation two days after a landslide ocurred in Ask, Gjerdrum municipality, Norway January 1, 2021. Terje Bendiksby/NTB via REUTERS

OSLO (Reuters) - Rescuers found one body on Friday, two days after a landslide in southern Norway swept away at least nine buildings, police said, with nine people still missing.

Another 10 people were injured after Wednesday's landslide in the residential area in the Gjerdrum municipality, about 30 km (19 miles) north of the capital, Oslo.

"One person has been found. Unfortunately this person is confirmed dead," the head of the police operation at the site, Roy Alkvist, told reporters, declining to give any details on the person.

Emergency workers are continuing their search in what Bjoern Nuland, head of the health team at the site, said was still a rescue operation. A search-and-rescue team from neighbouring Sweden was assisting.

Some 1,000 people have so far been evacuated from Gjerdrum, including 46 people from an area 2 km (1.2 miles) away from the landslide, after cracks were observed in the ground.

The landslide and the rescue effort have gripped the Nordic nation of 5.4 million.

King Harald, 83, said at the start of his traditional New Year's Eve speech on Thursday that the "tragic event leaves a deep impression on us all".

"I feel with you who go in the New Year with grief and uncertainty. With you who have lost your homes, and who are right now despairing and do not see the way forward," he said.