“We are still in a rescue operation, which means we can still find survivors,” Roger Pettersen, director of police operations, said Monday.
Seven people have died in the disaster, and three are still reported missing, Norwegian police said.
Cold weather is working against rescue efforts, Andre Thiller, health operations manager, said during the conference. However, he said, the survivors could still be hidden in “landslides in the landslide”, which is why authorities are making “absolutely certain that all relevant cavities have been scanned before the end of the effort”.
The landslide is the worst the country has seen in recent years in terms of “the number of homes involved and the number of evacuees,” the Norwegian Directorate of Water and Energy Resources (NVE) said in a statement. .
It took place in the early hours of December 30, when the mud entered Ask, located in the municipality of Gjerdrum. Filming on stage showed a collapsed hill and buildings hanging from the edge of the crater.
NVE said the slippery clay caused an “avalanche pit of about 300 by 700 meters (980 to 2,300 feet).”
“It hurts me to see how the forces of nature have devastated Gjerdrum,” said the country’s prime minister, Erna Solberg, on social media. “My thoughts are with all those affected by the landslide,” he added.
The King and Queen of Norway visited the landslide on Sunday.
“The terrible incident makes a deep impression on us all,” King Harald V said during his annual New Year’s speech. “I sympathize with you who enter the new year with sadness and uncertainty. With you who have lost your homes and who are now desperate and see no way forward.”