HELSINKI (AP) – Rescue workers in Norway continued on Thursday to search for ten people, including children, who are missing a day after a massive landslide struck a residential area near the capital.
Time was running out to find survivors in destroyed buildings amid the winter weather conditions. Authorities said it was too dangerous to send ground rescue patrols to the devastated area of Ask village, in the municipality of Gjerdrum, about 25 kilometers (16 miles) northeast of Oslo. Instead, the search was carried out with the help of helicopters, drones and heat chambers.
“We still hope to find people and save lives,” police spokesman Dag Andre Sylju told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.
No casualties were reported, but about ten people were injured, one of them seriously, in what Prime Minister Erna Solberg called “probably one of the largest landslides we have ever had.”
Officials said at least nine buildings with 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 crossed 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 show dramatic scenes of buildings on the edge of the ravine.
The area is known to have a large amount of so-called fast clay, a form of clay that can change from solid to liquid. Experts said the clay substance combined with excessive rainfall and humid weather conditions 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 finally built there later in the decade.