A landslide in Norway buries houses in the mud; 12 people are still missing

A major landslide destroyed houses in a village in Norway near the capital Oslo at night, leaving 12 people missing and 10 injured, police and local media said Wednesday. Video footage of the scene showed that an entire hill had collapsed in Ask, in the municipality of Gjerdrum, 25 miles northeast of the capital. Houses were left crushed and buried in dark mud.

Snow fell all morning as emergency services evacuated the injured and tried to secure the houses that were still standing. Some houses staggered on the rim of the crater left by the slide, and a few fell over the rim during the day.

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 had 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.

At the beginning of the evening, police reported that 12 people were still missing.

“We don’t know if these people are in the landslide area, if they are on vacation or otherwise not able to contact the police,” the police said in a statement.

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

“The police are calling this a disaster,” Roger Pettersen, chief of operations, told NRK broadcaster.

Emergency calls came from people saying their whole house was moving, he said.

“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.

Swedish daily Aftonbladet reported that Sweden sent specially trained personnel to assist in the rescue.

“We will help search for missing people and secure buildings,” Gothenburg operations leader Stefan Karlsson told the newspaper.

Norwegian King Harald said in a 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.