HELSINKI (AP) – Rescuers looking for survivors four days after a landslide took houses in a Norwegian village found no signs of life on Saturday amid the dilapidated buildings and rubble.
Two bodies were recovered, but investigators are still looking for eight more people believed to be missing. The landslide in the village of Ask is the worst in modern Norwegian history and shocked the citizens of the Nordic nation.
Ground search teams patrolled with dogs like helicopters and drones with heat detection cameras flew through the harsh winter conditions on the devastated hill in Ask, a village of 5,000 inhabitants 25 kilometers (16 miles) northeast of Oslo.
Norwegian police have promised not to narrow the search, although a rescue team from neighboring Sweden has already returned home.
Local police chief Ida Melbo Oeystese said it may still be possible to find survivors in air pockets inside the destroyed buildings.
“From a medical point of view, you can survive for several days if you have air,” she told reporters at a news conference.
On Saturday afternoon, a second body was found after a first body was discovered on Friday. Only one Dalmatian dog has been rescued alive from the ruins so far.
On Friday, Norwegian police published the names and years of birth of the 10 people initially missing, including a 2-year-old child. Authorities have not yet identified the two recovered bodies.
The landslide on Wednesday morning cut a road through Ask, leaving a ravine as deep as a crater that cars could not pass. Photos and videos showed dramatic scenes of buildings hanging from the edge of the ravine, which was 700 meters (2,300 feet) long and 300 meters (1,000 feet) wide. At least nine buildings with more than 30 apartments have been destroyed.
The rescue operation is being hampered by the limited number of hours of daylight in the area at this time of year and fears of further erosion of the land. The terrain is fragile at the site and will hardly support the weight of the rescue equipment, including a Norwegian military heavy vehicle.
More than 1,000 people were evacuated and officials said up to 1,500 people could be removed from the area amid fears of further landslides.
The exact cause of the accident is still unknown, but the Gjerdrum area is known to have a large amount of fast clay, a form of clay that can change from solid to liquid. Experts say the clay substance combined with excessive precipitation and the typical humid climatic conditions in Norway may have contributed to the landslide.
Norwegian authorities in 2005 warned people not to build residential buildings in the area, but the houses were eventually built there in the late 1990s.
Spokeswoman Toril Hofshagen, of the Norwegian Water and Energy Directorate, said the landslide was the only one in its destruction.
“Since 1893 there has been no rapid mudslide of this size in Norway,” Hofshagen told Norwegian media on Saturday.