Norway mourns 77 dead on 10th anniversary of terror attack
OSLO, Norway (AP) - Commemorations will begin Thursday marking the 10-year anniversary of Norway´s worst ever peacetime slaughter.
On July 22, 2011, rightwing terrorist Anders Breivik set of a bomb in the capital, Oslo, killing eight people, before heading to tiny Utoya island where he stalked and shot dead 69 mostly teen members of the Labor Party youth wing.
Events will take place around the country, including a service in Oslo Cathedral that will end with bells ringing in churches throughout Norway.
King Harald is expected to speak during a commemoration in Oslo. He will be joined by past and present prime ministers and leaders of the Labor Party youth. Events will also take place on Utoya.
FILE - In this Sunday, July 24, 2011 file photo, a female lights a candle at a makeshift memorial to victims of the bombing and shooting attacks, opposite Utoya island, Norway. At 3.25 p.m. on July 22, 2021, a ray of sun should have illuminated the first of 77 bronze columns on a lick of land opposite Utoya island outside Oslo. Over the next 3 hours and 8 minutes, it would have brushed each column in turn, commemorating every person killed by right-wing terrorist Anders Breivik. But on the ten-year anniversary of the terror, the memorial remains a construction site. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)
FILE - In this Monday, July 25, 2011 file photo, relatives of a victim gather to observe a minute's silence on a campsite jetty on the Norwegian mainland, across the water from Utoya island, seen in the background, where people have been placing floral tributes in memory of those killed in the shooting massacre on the island. At 3.25 p.m. on July 22, 2021, a ray of sun should have illuminated the first of 77 bronze columns on a lick of land opposite Utoya island outside Oslo. Over the next 3 hours and 8 minutes, it would have brushed each column in turn, commemorating every person killed by right-wing terrorist Anders Breivik. But on the ten-year anniversary of the terror, the memorial remains a construction site. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)
FILE - In this Saturday, July 23, 2011 file photo, an emergency services boat passes the island of Utoya, Norway, after a mass shooting. On the ten-year anniversary of Norway's worst peacetime slaughter, survivors of Anders Breivik's 22 July assault worry that the seam of racism that nurtured the anti-Islamic mass-murderer is re-emerging.Most of Breivik's 77 victims were teen members of the Labor Party Youth wing - idealists enjoying their annual camping trip on the tranquil, wooded island of Utoya. Today many survivors are battling to keep their vision for their country alive. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)
