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Helsinki – Rescue teams in a Norwegian village were still looking for survivors on Saturday, four days after a landslide buried several houses.
Two bodies have been recovered so far, but teams are looking for eight more people who are still missing.
Ground-based search teams are aided by helicopters and drones with heat-detection cameras amid harsh winter conditions on the devastated hill in the town of Ask, about 15 miles northeast of Oslo.
Police promised not to delay the search, despite the fact that a rescue team from neighboring Sweden has already returned home.
Local police chief Ida Melbo Oeystese said survivors can still be found in the air bubbles formed in the destroyed buildings.
“Medically, you can survive for several days if you have air,” he told reporters at a news conference.
A second body was found in the area on Saturday afternoon; The first was found on Friday. A Dalmatian dog was rescued alive.
The landslide is the worst in modern Norwegian history and has shocked the citizens of the Nordic nation.
On Friday evening, police released the names and years of birth of the 10 people who were initially reported missing. They include a 2 year old child. Authorities have not yet identified the two recovered bodies.
The mudslide cut a road through Ask, where about 5,000 people lived, leaving a deep crater-like ravine that cars could not pass.
Photos and video footage showed dramatic scenes of buildings hanging loose from the ravine’s edge.
At least nine buildings with more than 30 apartments were destroyed.
The rescue operation was hampered by limited hours of daylight, fears of further soil erosion and the site’s fragile soil, which is unlikely to support the weight of the rescue team, including a heavy military vehicle.
More than 1,000 people have been evacuated and authorities said up to 1,500 people could be relocated from the area for fear of more landslides.