Icon: enlarge
Disaster area in Ask: Among the victims is a two-year-old
Photo: Cornelius Poppe, Pool / dpa
Less than a week after the landslide in Norway with at least seven dead, the rescue workers have given up their long-held confidence that they will still find survivors of the disaster.
It is with great sadness that she has to announce that there is no longer any hope of finding people alive in the disaster area, said regional police chief Ida Melbo Øystese.
The mission, which was previously considered a rescue operation, is now entering a new phase.
It is about finding the bodies of the three remaining missing persons.
"We've done everything we can to save lives last week," said the policewoman.
“We've checked every area where you could imagine someone could survive.
We did everything we could.
But this natural disaster had considerable forces. "
The autopsy reports of the fatalities found so far showed that they died very quickly.
This underlines the forces that acted on their bodies, said Melbo Øystese.
In view of this, survival was hardly possible.
Among the dead: children - and a pregnant mother
The landslide in Ask in the municipality of Gjerdrum around 40 kilometers northeast of Oslo occurred in the early morning of December 30th.
It had spread to several hundred meters in length and width in the small community and destroyed several houses.
At least ten people were injured in the departure, around a thousand people had to be brought to safety.
As a result of the landslide, ten people were initially missing.
Since New Year's Day, rescue workers have found and identified seven fatalities.
Among them was a two-year-old girl with her father and pregnant mother, and four other dead between the ages of 29 and 69.
The three missing are two adults and a 13-year-old.
Even after several days, the rescue workers had declared to the last that they could possibly still find the remaining missing persons alive.
After an alarm, however, the rescuers had to temporarily withdraw from the risk zone on Tuesday because there had been a new, smaller exit.
Nobody was injured.
Icon: The mirror
mxw / dpa