HELSINKI (AP) – Rescue teams looking for survivors in a Norwegian village four days after a landslide found no signs of life amid the destroyed buildings and debris on Saturday.
Two bodies have been recovered, but searchers are still looking for eight other missing persons. The landslide in the village of Ask is the worst in modern Norwegian history and has shocked citizens in the Scandinavian nation.
Ground search teams patrolled dogs as helicopters and drones with heat-detecting cameras flew above the harsh winter conditions on the devastated hill in Ask, a village of 5,000 people 25 kilometers (16 miles) northeast of Oslo.
Norwegian police promised not to reduce the search, although a rescue team from neighboring Sweden has already returned home.
Local police chief Ida Melbo Oeystese said it may still be possible to find survivors in air pockets in the destroyed buildings.
“Medically, you can survive for several days if you have air,” she told reporters at a news conference.
A second body was found on Saturday afternoon after the first was discovered on Friday. So far only a Dalmatian dog has been rescued alive from the ruins.
At the end of Friday, Norwegian police published the names and years of birth of the 10 people who were initially reported missing, including a 2-year-old child. Officials have not yet identified the two recovered bodies.
The landslide early Wednesday cut a road through Ask, leaving a deep, crater-like ravine that cars could not pass. Photographs and video footage showed dramatic scenes of buildings hanging on the edge of the ravine, which became 700 meters long and 300 meters wide. At least nine buildings with more than 30 apartments were destroyed.
The rescue operation is hampered by the limited amount of daylight in the area at this time of the year and fears of further land erosion. The ground is fragile at the site and is unlikely to support the weight of rescue equipment, including a heavy Norwegian army vehicle.
More than 1,000 people have been evacuated, and officials said up to 1,500 people could be relocated from the area for fear of further landslides.
The exact cause of the accident is not yet known, but the Gjerdrum area is known to contain a lot of fast clay, a form of clay that can change from solid to liquid form. Experts said the clay substance coupled with excessive rainfall and the humid weather conditions typical of Norway may have contributed to the landslide.
Norwegian authorities warned people in 2005 not to build residential buildings in the area, but houses were eventually built later in the decade.
Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate spokeswoman Toril Hofshagen called the landslide unique in its destruction.
“There has not been a rapid landslide of this magnitude in Norway since 1893,” Hofshagen told Norwegian media on Saturday.