Norway mourns 77 dead a decade after extremist attack

Commemorations have begun yesterday to mark 10 years since Norway’s worst ever peacetime slaughter.
On July 22, 2011, right wing extremist Anders Breivik set off a bomb in the capital, Oslo, killing eight people, before heading to tiny Utoya island where he stalked and shot dead 69 mostly teen members of the Labor Party’s youth wing.
Events took place around the country, including a service in Oslo Cathedral that will end with bells ringing in churches throughout Norway.
Around the country, people listened as emotional survivors read aloud the names of the 77 victims at a memorial event that was broadcast on television.
Some parents of the victims reflected on the way the country coped with the slaughter, and said that “time does not heal all wounds.”
“[The victims] would be proud of how we reacted after the terror and how the rule of law stood strong,” said Lisbeth Roeyneland, whose daughter Synne was murdered by Breivik. Roeyneland now runs the national support group for victims and families.
Astrid Hoem, a survivor from Utoya, who now leads the Labor Youth, said “we have not stopped the hatred” and urged the country to continue facing up to the racism in the country. MDT/AP