Norwegian rescuers deployed drones and dogs to negotiate unstable clay soil in a search for 10 people still missing on Thursday after a landslide in southern Norway swept away more than a dozen buildings the previous day. Another 10 people were injured, one critically, after the landslide in the residential area in the Gjerdrum municipality, about 30km (19 miles) north of the capital, Oslo. Conditions remained challenging, with the clay ground still too unstable for emergency workers to walk on and temperatures registering -1 Celsius (30F) at 7am local time. The edges of the crater continued to break away, authorities said, asking people not to approach the area. Some 1,000 people have so far been evacuated. “We are still searching for survivors,” the head of the police operation at the site, Roger Pettersen, told reporters, adding that both children and adults were missing. During the night, police used drones with heat-seeking equipment to search for survivors in the debris. Helicopters have tried lowering military and police with search-and-rescue dogs on some structures believed stable enough to stand on. A Dalmatian dog was rescued during the night. On Thursday, Pettersen asked locals not to send up fireworks to celebrate New Year’s Eve so as to not interfere with the helicopters and drones. ‘Pure horror’ after Croatia hit by worst quake in 140 years Separately, questions were being asked about why construction was allowed in the area. Broadcaster TV2 said a 2005 geological survey for municipal authorities labelled the area at high risk of landslides. But new homes were built three years after the report was published. Local residents spoke of their experience. “There were two massive tremors that lasted for a long while and I assumed it was snow being cleared or something like that,” Oeystein Gjerdrum, 68, told broadcaster NRK. “Then the power suddenly went out, and a neighbour came to the door and said we needed to evacuate, so I woke up my three grandchildren and told them to get dressed quickly.” According to the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) what happened was a so-called “quick clay slide” of around 300 by 700 metres. Woman loses 22 relatives in Guatemala landslide “This is the largest landslide in recent times in Norway, considering the number of houses involved and the number of evacuees,” NVE spokeswoman Laila Hoivik said. Quick clay is a sort of clay found in Norway and Sweden that can collapse and turn to fluid when overstressed. “The area has been surveyed earlier, and is known to contain quick clay. The possibility of similar large slides in the area is low at the moment,” Hoivik said. Swedish daily Aftonbladet reported that Sweden was sending specially trained personnel to help in the rescue effort. “We will help in the search for missing people and securing buildings,” operations leader Stefan Karlsson of the Gothenburg emergency services, told the newspaper. Norway’s King Harald said in a statement that the accident had “made a deep impression on me and my family. “My thoughts are with everyone affected, the injured, those who lost their homes and are now living in fear and uncertainty of the full extent of the disaster,” he said. Additional reporting by Reuters
