OSLO—Two people have been confirmed dead after a loud explosion shattered windows Friday at the government headquarters in Oslo, which includes the prime minister’s office, injuring several people, Norwegian broadcaster NRK reports.
Oslo police have confirmed the explosion was caused by a bomb, Norwegian news agency NTB reported. ABC News is also reporting the explosion was a result of a massive vehicle bomb, according to U.S. government sources in the area.
Witness Ole Tommy Pedersen was standing at a bus stop about 100 metres from the high-rise at around 3:30 p.m. local time when he saw the blast shatter almost all windows of the 20-floor highrise. He said a cloud of smoke is billowing from the bottom floors.
“I saw three or four injured people being carried out of the building a few minutes later,” Pedersen told AP.
Video shown by Norwegian broadcaster NRK showed most of the windows of the building had been blown out. The bottom floor appeared to be completely gutted. Shattered glass and debris littered a square in front of the building.
“You cannot go through here because there are still two bombs we do not know where they are,” a police officer told a reporter for Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten.
Nearby offices were evacuated including those housing some of Norway’s leading newspapers, including VG Nett and news agency NTB. Some of them were also damaged.
“Entire ministries are devastated – the whole building smashed from top to bottom,” VG Nett reported on its website.
VG Nett reporter Jarle Brenna reportedly told his paper: “When I came around the corner into Akersgata by the VG (building). . . there were a lot of injured people on the sidewalk. There were no ambulances or police at the site yet. A number of shocked people walked around and found it difficult to understand what had happened.”
An AP reporter who was in the NTB office said the building shook from the blast and all employees evacuated the building as the alarm went off. Down at the street he saw one person with a bleeding leg being led away from the area.
The government building houses the prime minister’s office and his administration. Several ministries are in surrounding buildings.
Last week, a Norwegian prosecutor filed terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening Norwegian politicians with death if he’s deported from the Nordic country.
The indictment centred on statements that Mullah Krekar — the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam — made to various media, including American network NBC.
Last June, several newspapers quoted threats made by Krekar.
“Norway will pay a heavy price for my death,” he said. “If, for example, Erna Solber deports me and I die as a result, she will suffer the same fate.”
Solber is the current leader of the Conservative Party of Norway.
Danish authorities say they have foiled several terror plots linked to the 2005 newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that triggered protests in Muslim countries.
Last month, a Danish appeals court on Wednesday sentenced a Somali man to 10 years in prison for breaking into the home of a cartoonist who caricatured the Prophet Muhammad.
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg is safe, government spokeswoman Camilla Ryste told.
Oslo police have confirmed the explosion was caused by a bomb, Norwegian news agency NTB reported. ABC News is also reporting the explosion was a result of a massive vehicle bomb, according to U.S. government sources in the area.
Witness Ole Tommy Pedersen was standing at a bus stop about 100 metres from the high-rise at around 3:30 p.m. local time when he saw the blast shatter almost all windows of the 20-floor highrise. He said a cloud of smoke is billowing from the bottom floors.
“I saw three or four injured people being carried out of the building a few minutes later,” Pedersen told AP.
Video shown by Norwegian broadcaster NRK showed most of the windows of the building had been blown out. The bottom floor appeared to be completely gutted. Shattered glass and debris littered a square in front of the building.
“You cannot go through here because there are still two bombs we do not know where they are,” a police officer told a reporter for Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten.
Nearby offices were evacuated including those housing some of Norway’s leading newspapers, including VG Nett and news agency NTB. Some of them were also damaged.
“Entire ministries are devastated – the whole building smashed from top to bottom,” VG Nett reported on its website.
VG Nett reporter Jarle Brenna reportedly told his paper: “When I came around the corner into Akersgata by the VG (building). . . there were a lot of injured people on the sidewalk. There were no ambulances or police at the site yet. A number of shocked people walked around and found it difficult to understand what had happened.”
An AP reporter who was in the NTB office said the building shook from the blast and all employees evacuated the building as the alarm went off. Down at the street he saw one person with a bleeding leg being led away from the area.
The government building houses the prime minister’s office and his administration. Several ministries are in surrounding buildings.
The blast comes as the Scandinavian country has grappled with a series of homegrown terror plots linked to Al Qaeda, and six years after an uproar over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in neighbouring Denmark.
The indictment centred on statements that Mullah Krekar — the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam — made to various media, including American network NBC.
Last June, several newspapers quoted threats made by Krekar.
“Norway will pay a heavy price for my death,” he said. “If, for example, Erna Solber deports me and I die as a result, she will suffer the same fate.”
Solber is the current leader of the Conservative Party of Norway.
Danish authorities say they have foiled several terror plots linked to the 2005 newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that triggered protests in Muslim countries.
Last month, a Danish appeals court on Wednesday sentenced a Somali man to 10 years in prison for breaking into the home of a cartoonist who caricatured the Prophet Muhammad.
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