A landslide in Norway buries houses in the mud; 10 people are still missing

Rescue workers on Thursday used helicopters, drones and dogs to scan unstable ground the day after a major landslide destroyed homes in a village near the Norwegian capital, Oslo. At least 10 people were still missing and 10 others were injured, local officials said.

An entire hill collapsed on Wednesday evening in Ask, in the municipality of Gjerdrum, 25 miles northeast of the capital. Houses were crushed and buried in dense, dark clay that was too unstable on Thursday for rescuers to access on foot, Reuters news agency reported.

Freezing temperatures and snowfall made efforts to support the remaining structures and find the missing ones even more challenging, with some houses staggering on the rim of the crater created by the slide. Several buildings fell over the edge on Wednesday.

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, who traveled to the village with about 1,000 people on Wednesday, described the landslide as “one of the largest” the country has ever seen.

“It’s a dramatic experience to be here,” Solberg told reporters, expressing particular concern about those who are still missing.

“The situation is still so unstable with the mud that it is not yet possible to do anything other than helicopter rescues,” she added.

Norwegian media said that 700 people had been evacuated from their homes, and the municipality warned that as many as 1,500 people would have to leave the region for security reasons.

“We are still looking for survivors,” Reuters quoted head of police operation on the scene, Roger Pettersen, adding that children and adults were among the missing.

Police said 10 people had been injured, one of which was taken to Oslo with serious injuries.

Pettersen said on Wednesday that emergency calls had come in from people saying their entire house was moving in with them. Nighttime helicopters used heat-scanning technology to search for people and, as part of their efforts, lowered several rescue workers onto structures.

“There are dramatic reports and the situation is serious,” said Pettersen.

According to the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE), there was a so-called “fast clay slide” of about 328 to 766 meters.

“This is the largest landslide in Norway in recent times, given the number of houses involved and the number of evacuees,” NVE spokeswoman Laila Hoivik told AFP.

Rapid clay is a type of clay found in Norway and Sweden that can collapse and liquefy when overloaded.

“The area has been previously explored and is known to contain fast clay. The chances of similarly large slides in the area are currently low,” said Hoivik.

Reuters quoted Norwegian broadcaster TV2 as saying that a 2005 geological survey had discovered the clay and deemed the area unsuitable for residential development, but that new houses were not built on the land until a few years later.

Norwegian King Harald said in a rare public statement that the accident had “made a deep impression on him”.

“My thoughts are with all those affected, the injured, those who lost their homes and now live in fear and uncertainty about the full extent of the disaster,” he said.