OSLO: A major landslide destroyed homes during the night in a village in Norway close to the capital Oslo, leaving more than 20 people missing and 10 injured, police and local media said on Wednesday. Video footage from the scene showed a whole hillside had collapsed in Ask in the municipality of Gjerdrum, 25 kilometres northeast of the capital, leaving homes crushed and buried in dark mud. Snow fell throughout the morning as the emergency services evacuated the injured and attempted to secure still standing homes, some of which were teetering on the edge of the crater left behind by the slide.
Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg travelled to the village of around 1,000 people on Wednesday and described the landslide as “one of the largest” the country had seen. “It’s a dramatic experience to be here,” Solberg told reporters, adding she was particularly concerned with those still missing. “The situation is still so unstable with the mud that it’s not yet possible to do anything other than helicopter rescues,” she said. Norwegian media said that 700 people had been evacuated from their homes, while 21 people were unaccounted for. — AFP
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