OSLO - A suspected far-right gunman in police uniform killed at least 84 people in a ferocious attack on a youth summer camp of Norway's ruling Labor party, hours after a bomb killed seven in Oslo.
Witnesses said the gunman, identified by police as a 32-year-old Norwegian, moved across the small, wooded island of Utoeya in a lake northwest of Oslo Friday, firing at young people who scattered in panic or tried to swim to safety.
Red Bulls sporting director Erik Soler, who hails from Norway and has deep connections there, said his daughter works only 200 feet away from where bombs were detonated in Oslo.
“She was able to get to safety, run away,” Soler said tonight. “I just got a message from her this second. She said the whole country is at a total standstill. They’re shocked. It’s unbelievable.
“Everybody is simply unable to understand it. It’s really hard. Apart from that, my family and friends as far as I know there is nobody involved. I might possibly know some of the families who lost kids on that island because Oslo is a small city and I know a lot of people. I’m prepared for some bad news, but we’ll have to see.”
“It’s very unreal,” fullback Jan Gunnar Solli, an Arendal, Norway, native, said. “I’ve been calling my friends back in Oslo and my family, but they’re not from there. Actually, I have one friend who live four blocks away and his window was blown out from the explosion. It’s been terrible. Of course, following it on the news on my computer — it’s been a strange 24 hours.
“It was nice to clear my mind and just focus on the game. It was nice everyone was carrying a black band to show respect for the victims. It is a small country. What has happened is a terrible thing.
