A huge homemade bomb explodes in the heart of Oslo, then the first shots of an endless 72-minute shootout ring out on Utoya.
Ten years ago, on July 22, 2011, Norway fell into horror.
On this rainy Friday afternoon, the peaceful Scandinavian nation dozes in a summer torpor when the tragedy presents itself in the guise of Anders Behring Breivik, a right-wing extremist disguised as a police officer.
A "failed" bomb attack
At 3.25 p.m., a rental van stuffed with 950 kilos of explosives made from fertilizer exploded at the foot of the tower that houses the headquarters of the Prime Minister, Labor Jens Stoltenberg, now head of NATO.
The attack left eight dead and dozens injured.
Fortunately, its author, Breivik, 32, had been delayed in a traffic jam and many employees had already left.
Working in his official residence, nearly 2 km away, Jens Stoltenberg comes out unscathed.
In the vehicle he parked further away to escape, Breivik hears over the radio that, contrary to his hopes, the 17-story government tower has not collapsed.
The government tower in Oslo after the explosion (SCANPIX NORWAY / POLICE / AFP) -
He then decides to put the second phase of his plan into action.
At 5:17 p.m., still dressed in his false uniform, he landed on the island of Utoya, about forty kilometers north-west of Oslo, where, like every year, hundreds of young Labor workers gathered for a camp. 'summer.
Descended from the barge MS Thorbjorn which provides shuttles on the lake, he shoots down the "matriarch" of the camp Monica Bosei and an off-duty policeman in charge of the security of the gathering.
Armed with a Ruger rifle and a semi-automatic Glock pistol, he roams the island and tracks down helpless young people whose confidence he tries to gain by presenting himself as a policeman who has come to protect them.
"You are going to die, Marxists"
In the cafeteria, at the end of a steep hill, thirteen people fall under his bullets. Ten others perish while holding hands on the "path of love" which runs along the shore, then fourteen others near the water pump. The massacre lasts 72 long minutes: 189 casings will be collected.
Trapped on an island of 0.12 km2, young people throw themselves into the cold waters of the lake. Alerted by the shots, the occupants of a neighboring campsite rush to rescue them with their boats and also come under fire. "You are going to die, Marxists," shouts the killer who has absorbed an energizing mixture of ephedrine, caffeine and aspirin. Twice, he calls the police to propose his surrender. “I have completed my operation and want to surrender,” he says. But, after each communication, the shooting resumes. He shoots all those he meets and finishes off the wounded: 56 of his 69 victims are found with a bullet in the head.
Coming by road from Oslo, then aboard a modest inflatable boat which, overloaded, died in the middle of the lake, a special police intervention team finally managed to disembark on the island thanks to the help from boaters.
At 6.34 p.m., Breivik was finally arrested without offering any resistance.
Norway has just experienced the worst tragedy in its post-war history.
"Even more democracy, even more humanity ..."
Of the 564 summer camp participants, 67 were killed by gunshot and two from a fall or drowning.
Thirty-three others were injured by gunfire.
Most of the victims are under 20: the youngest blew out her fourteenth candle five days earlier.
Sign of the outburst of violence, up to eight bullet holes will be counted on the body of an 18-year-old teenager.
Breivik's avowed objective is to provoke as spectacular an attack as possible, "fireworks" in his own words, to draw attention to his "manifesto", a 1,500-page document in which he displays his ideology. anti-Muslim.
Norwegian neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik, author of a massacre that killed 77 people in 2011, arrives for the appeal trial on his conditions of detention on January 10, 2017 at Telemark prison in Skien (AFP / Lise AASERUD)
In reaction, Jens Stoltenberg will strike the spirits by promising "even more democracy, even more humanity but never naivety".
At his trial, Breivik admits the facts but pleads not guilty. In 2012, he was sentenced to 21 years in prison, a sentence that could be extended indefinitely, as long as he was considered a threat to society.
