Rescue workers at the landslide site in Ask, Norway, on January 2.
Photographer: Tor Erik Schroeder / NTB / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Tor Erik Schroeder / NTB / AFP / Getty Images
Norwegian rescuers have now recovered four bodies in a village not far from the nation’s capital hit by a landslide on Wednesday, with 6 people still missing.
The last three discoveries were made in the same area in a building about 100 meters from the site, Knut Hammer, the head of the police operation, told reporters on Saturday. Rescuers are still searching for survivors in difficult conditions.
The rapid clay landslide occurred about 20 kilometers north of Oslo and a month of record rainfall follows. About 1,000 people were evacuated from the area after the landslide devastated large parts of the village.
Such landslides are known to occur in neighboring Norway and Sweden, when the rapid clay common to parts of Scandinavia fills with rainwater and turns into liquid, according to the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute. Several houses were transported to the sea due to a similar landslide in June. No one was injured in the incident.
(Updates with search details in the second paragraph)