COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Norwegian officials insisted on Monday that there is “still hope” of finding survivors in air pockets five days after a landslide killed at least seven people while taking houses to a village from the north of the capital. Three people are still missing.
Police spokesman Roger Pettersen said the search efforts in the landslide-hit village of Ask, 25 kilometers northeast of Oslo, were still considered “a rescue operation”. But only bodies have been found in recent days.
The region’s freezing temperatures “work against us, but we were very clear in our (rescuers’) advice that as long as there are cavities in which the missing could have remained, it is possible for us to survive,” said Dr. Halvard Stave, who participate in the rescue operation.
Temperatures in Ask were minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday.
“I would further describe the situation as very unreal,” said Anders Oestensen, the mayor of Gjerdrum, where Ask is located.
Authorities said one victim was found on Friday, three on Saturday and three on Sunday. Ten people were injured, one seriously.
Search crews patrolled with dogs as helicopters and drones with heat detection cameras flew over the devastated hill of Ask, a village of 5,000 that was hit by the worst landslide in modern Norwegian history. At least 1,000 people were evacuated.
The landslide early Wednesday crossed a road through Ask, leaving a deep, crater-like ravine. Some buildings now hang on the edge of the ravine, which has grown to 700 meters long and 300 meters wide. At least nine buildings with more than 30 apartments have been destroyed.
“This is completely terrible,” King Harald V said after Norwegian kings visited the landslide on Sunday.
The limited number of hours in Norway during this time of year and fears of further erosion have hampered rescue operations. The ground is fragile on the spot and cannot support the weight of heavy rescue equipment.
The exact cause of the accident is not yet known, but the area is known for having a lot of fast clay, a material that can change from solid to liquid. Experts said that fast clay, combined with excessive rainfall and wet winter weather, could have contributed to the landslide.
In 2005, Norwegian authorities warned people not to build residential buildings in the area, saying it was a “high-risk area” for landslides, but houses were eventually built later in the decade.
Norway’s largest landslide was in 1893 in Verdal, north of Trondheim, in the middle of Norway, killing 116 people, the VG reported. It seems to have been up to 40 times larger than the one in Ask where somewhere between 1.4 million and 2 million cubic meters of land collapsed.