HELSINKI (AP) – Rescue workers in Norway continued on Thursday to search for 10 people, including children, who are missing a day after a massive landslide hit a residential area near the capital.
Time was running out to find survivors in destroyed buildings amid winter weather. Authorities said it was too dangerous to send ground rescue patrols to the devastated area in the village of Ask in Gjerdrum Municipality, some 25 kilometers (16 miles) northeast of Oslo. Instead, the search was performed using helicopters, drones and thermal cameras.
“We still have hope of finding people and saving lives,” police spokesman Dag Andre Sylju told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.
There were no reports of casualties, but about 10 people were injured, one of them seriously, in what Prime Minister Erna Solberg called “probably one of the biggest landslides we’ve had.”
Officials said at least nine buildings containing about 30 apartments were destroyed in early Wednesday’s landslide.
More than 1,000 people have been evacuated, and officials said up to 1,500 people could be relocated from the area for fear of further landslides.
The landslide cut a road through Ask, home to some 5,000 people, and left a deep, crater-like ravine that cars could not pass. Photographs and video footage showed dramatic scenes of buildings at the edge of the ravine.
The area is known for the large amount of so-called quick clay, a form of clay that can change from solid to liquid form. Experts said the clay’s substance coupled with excessive rainfall and damp weather may have contributed to the landslide.
Norwegian media reported that in 2005 authorities warned construction companies not to build houses in the area, but houses were eventually built later in the decade.