COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Norwegian authorities said on Tuesday they had given up hope of finding survivors of a landslide that ravaged homes in a residential area nearly a week ago, killing seven people.
Three people remain missing from the Dec. 30 disaster that destroyed at least nine buildings with more than 30 apartments in the village of Ask, located 25 kilometers (16 miles) northeast of Oslo. The landslide was one of the worst in modern Norwegian history.
“It is with great sadness that I must say that we no longer have any hope of finding people alive after the landslide,” said local police chief Ida Melbo Oeystese.
“We have done everything in our power. But this natural disaster had significant forces. Those who died have died relatively quickly, “she added, visibly moved.
Research teams will continue to “work to find all those missing,” Oeystese said.
The police chief spoke hours after a small dog was found alive in the rubble, raising hopes for rescuers. The dog was found Monday afternoon “in good condition” in an area where rescuers had been working, police spokesman Ivar Myrboe said.
Another smaller landslide just before noon on Tuesday forced search terms to evacuate the site and no one was injured, police said. One rescuer, Kenneth Wangen, said the landslide was not “dramatic” and that search terms received early warnings from drones and other emergency personnel.
Geologists will assess the site before the search continues, according to authorities.
Since the original landslide, dog search teams have been looking through the rubble at temperatures below freezing as helicopters and drones with heat detection cameras flew over the hillside of the 5,000-resident village.
At least 1,000 people were evacuated. Some buildings are now hung on the edge of a deep ravine, which came to be 700 meters long (2,300 feet) and 300 meters wide (1,000 feet).
The exact cause of the landslide is not yet known, but the area has a lot of fast clay, which can quickly change from solid to liquid when disturbed. Experts said the fast clay, combined with excessive rainfall and a humid winter climate, may have contributed to the landslide.
In 2005, Norwegian authorities warned people not to build residential buildings in the Ask area, saying it was “a high-risk area” for landslides, but by the end of the decade they were built there. houses.
A landslide in central Norway in 1893 killed 116 people. It was reported to be up to 40 times larger than that of Ask, where between 1.4 and 2 million cubic meters of earth collapsed.
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said she received the news about the abandoned search for survivors “with great sadness” and that her thoughts were with the friends and families of the victims.