COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Norwegian authorities said on Tuesday that they “no longer hope to find the survivors” of a landslide that wiped out homes in a residential area nearly a week ago, killing seven people.
Three people are still missing after the December 30 disaster that destroyed at least nine buildings with more than 30 apartments in the village of Ask, 25 kilometers northeast of Oslo. The landslide was one of the worst in modern Norwegian history.
“It is with great sadness to say that we have no hope of finding people alive after the landslide,” said local police chief Ida Melbo Oeystese.
“We have done everything in our power. But this natural disaster had considerable powers. Those who died died relatively quickly, ”she added visibly moved.
Search crews will continue to “work to find anyone who goes missing,” Oeystese said.
The police chief spoke hours after a small dog was found alive in the rubble, raising hope for rescue workers. The dog was found ‘in good condition’ late Monday in an area where rescue workers were at work, police spokesman Ivar Myrboe said.
Another, smaller landslide just before Tuesday afternoon forced search terms to evacuate the site and no one was injured, police said. A rescuer, Kenneth Wangen, said the landslide was “not dramatic” and search terms were forewarned by drones and other emergency personnel.
Geologists will assess the site before continuing the search, authorities said.
Since the original landslide, search teams with dogs have looked through the debris in freezing temperatures, as helicopters and drones with heat-detecting cameras flew over the devastated hill in the village of 5,000 residents.
At least 1,000 people were evacuated. Some buildings now hang on the edge of a deep ravine, which grew to 700 meters long (2,300 feet) and 300 meters wide (1,000 feet).
The exact cause of the landslide is not yet known, but the area has a lot of fast clay, which can quickly change from solid to liquid form when disturbed. Experts said the rapid clay, combined with excessive rainfall and damp winter weather, may have contributed to the landslide.
In 2005, Norwegian authorities warned people not to build residential buildings in the Ask area. They said it was “a risk area” for landslides, but eventually houses were built later in the decade.
A landslide in central Norway in 1893 killed 116 people. It was reportedly up to 40 times larger than the one in Ask, where somewhere between 1.4 million and 2 million cubic meters of land fell.