Norway ends rescue effort for survivors six days after landslide
Debris from a destroyed house in Ask, Gjerdrum county, on December 31, 2020, one day after the landslide.
(CNN)Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said rescuers have given up hope of finding three missing people alive after a village was hit by a dramatic landslide more than six days ago.
Seven
people were killed in the village of Ask, around 19 miles (30
kilometers) north of Norway's capital, Oslo, on December 30. Rescuers,
who had battled freezing weather conditions in search of survivors, have
now turned their mission into a search for bodies.
"It
is with great sadness that we now receive the message that there is no
longer any hope of finding survivors after the landslide in Gjerdrum,"
Solberg said on Twitter, referring to the municipality where Ask is
located.
"My
thoughts go to those who have lost loved ones. I want to thank the
rescue crews who have done everything they can to save lives."
An aerial view on January 3 of the area impacted in Ask, Norway.
The
president of Norway's Parliament, Tone Wilhelmsen Trøen, called the
disaster "a desperate situation, for the Gjerdrum community and for the
whole of Norway."
In
a news conference near the scene of the disaster, Police Chief of the
Eastern Police District Ida Melbo Øystes said: "In the last week we have
done everything we can to save lives. We have investigated all areas
where it was possible to imagine that someone could have survived."
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/05/europe/norway-landslide-search-intl/index.html
"But
even though we have given up hope of finding survivors, the search is
not over. We are now entering another phase to find everyone who
disappeared," Øystes said.
Video
footage from the scene shows a collapsed hillside that sent mud sliding
into the village during the early hours of the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment