Rescuers looking for survivors four days after a landslide took homes in a Norwegian village found no signs of life on Saturday amid the crumbling buildings and rubble. Three bodies have been recovered, but researchers are still looking for seven 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.
Search teams patrolled with dogs like helicopters and drones with heat detection cameras flew through the harsh winter conditions over 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.
NTB / Erik Schroeder via REUTERS
At the end of Saturday, a second and a third body were found after a first one was discovered on Friday. Only one Dalmatian dog has been rescued alive from the ruins so far.
King Harald V, Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon plan to visit the disaster area on Sunday to pay their respects to the victims and meet with residents and rescue workers. The 83-year-old monarch said in his New Year’s speech that the royal family was deeply moved by the tragedy.
Norwegian police have 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 three recovered bodies.
The landslide on Wednesday morning cut a road through Ask, leaving a deep crater-like ravine. Photos and videos showed 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 Norway at this time of year and fears of further erosion. The terrain is fragile at the site and unable to 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 not yet known, but the municipality of Gjerdrum, where Ask is located, is known to have a large amount of fast clay, a material that can change from solid to liquid. Experts say the clay substance combined with excessive rainfall and the typical humid climate in Norway at this time of year 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.
Spokesperson 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 such landslide in Norway,” Hofshagen told the media on Saturday.