Rescue workers at the landslide site in Ask, Norway, Jan.2.
Photographer: Tor Erik Schroeder / NTB / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Tor Erik Schroeder / NTB / AFP / Getty Images
Norwegian rescue workers have now recovered four bodies in a village not far from the country’s capital that was hit by a landslide on Wednesday, with six people still missing.
The latest three discoveries were made in the same area near a building about 100 meters from the site, Knut Hammer, chief of police operations, told reporters late on Saturday. Rescue workers are still searching at full capacity for survivors under difficult conditions.
The fast clay slide took place about 20 kilometers north of Oslo and follows a month of record rains. About 1,000 people were evacuated from the area after the landslide devastated large parts of the village.
Such landslides are known to occur in Norway and neighboring Sweden when the rapid clay found in some parts of Scandinavia fills with rainwater and liquefies, according to the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute. Several houses were knocked into the sea by a similar slide in June. Nobody was injured.
(Updates with details about second paragraph search)