Norwegian royal killed in shooting

Crown Princess of Norway’s stepbrother was killed by the crazed gunman as he shielded his ten-year-old son.

Off-duty policeman Trond Berntsen confronted Anders Breivik as the mass killer stepped on to Utoya island.

Mr Berntsen is believed to have saved his son by pushing him into bushes before he challenged the gunman.

The boy, who has not been named, survived and has begun telling police about the ordeal. Officers described his account as ‘harrowing’.

Mr Berntsen, 51, was the stepbrother of Crown Princess Mette-Marit. He was part of a private security operation for the youth summer camp at Utoya, but was unarmed.

He went to the ferry jetty following reports that a man, dressed as a policeman, had been acting suspiciously on the boat on his way to the holiday island.

A woman on the ferry, Monica Bosei, raised the alarm after learning details about the earlier bombing in Oslo.

The 45-year-old museum worker asked Breivik about the attack and became suspicious about his answers.

As the ferry docked on Utoya she ran off the boat and called for help from Mr Berntsen, who confronted Breivik.

The right-wing fanatic drew a gun and shot both Mrs Bosei and the off-duty policeman. Union representative Harald Olsen said Mr Berntsen would not have hesitated to challenge Breivik, even if he knew he was armed.

‘He would not have been afraid to confront someone acting suspiciously even if they had a gun.’

Mr Berntsen’s death was confirmed yesterday by a spokesman for the Norwegian royal family.

A palace spokesman said: ‘The crown princess’s thoughts go to his closest family.’ Mr Berntsen’s father Rolf became Mette-Marit’s stepfather in 1994 when he married her divorced mother Marit Tjessem.

The self-confessed mass killer said he also hoped to kill former prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, a news report said.

Anders Behring Breivik, 32, is charged with killing at least 86 people on the island of Utoya on Friday, where the ruling Labour Party was holding a youth camp. Seven also died in a bomb attack in the capital of Oslo earlier the same day.

He said under police questioning that he had intended to shoot Brundtland during her presentation on the island earlier in the afternoon but he was delayed, a report by the daily Aftenposten said, citing police sources.

Labour member Brundtland, who was prime minister for three terms between 1981 and 1996, is referred to as a "murderer of the country" on a web posting thought to be connected to Breivik and his extremist anti-immigration position.