HELSINKI (AP) – Rescue teams searching for survivors four days after a landslide took houses in a Norwegian village found no signs of life on Saturday amid ruined buildings and debris.
Two bodies have been recovered, but searchers are still searching for eight others believed to be missing. The landslide in the village of Ask is the worst in modern Norwegian history and has shocked the citizens of the northern nation.
Ground search crews patrolled with dogs while helicopters and drones with heat detection cameras flew over harsh winter conditions on the devastated hill of Ask, a village of 5,000 people 25 kilometers (16 miles) north. is from Oslo.
Norwegian police have pledged not to reduce the search, even though a rescue team from neighboring Sweden has already returned home.
Local police chief Ida Melbo Oeystese said it could still be possible to find survivors in the air pockets inside the destroyed buildings.
“From a medical point of view, you can survive for a few days if you have air,” she told reporters at a news conference.
By Saturday afternoon, a second body had been found after a first body was found on Friday. Only one Dalmatian dog has been saved alive from the ruins so far.
Late on Friday, Norwegian police released the names and years of birth of the 10 people initially reported missing, including a 2-year-old child. Officials have not yet identified the two recovered bodies.
The landslide early Wednesday crossed a road through Ask, leaving a deep, crater-like ravine that cars could not cross. Photographs and footage showed dramatic scenes of buildings hanging on the edge of the ravine, which grew to 700 meters long and 300 meters wide. At least nine buildings with more than 30 apartments have been destroyed.
The rescue operation is hampered by the limited number of hours of daylight in the area at this time of year and fears of further land erosion. The terrain is fragile on the spot and is unlikely to carry the weight of rescue equipment, including a heavy vehicle from the Norwegian army.
More than 1,000 people have been evacuated, and officials say up to 1,500 people could be moved out of the area amid landslides.
The exact cause of the accident is still unknown, but the Gjerdrum area is known because it has a lot of fast clay, a form of clay that can change from solid to liquid. Experts said the clay substance combined with excessive rainfall and humid weather conditions typical of Norway could have contributed to the landslide.
Norwegian authorities in 2005 warned people not to build residential buildings in the area, but houses were eventually built later in the decade.
Toril Hofshagen, a spokesman for the Norwegian Directorate for Water and Energy Resources, called the landslide unique in its destruction.
“Not since 1893 has there been a rapid landslide of this size in Norway,” Hofshagen told the Norwegian media on Saturday.