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Agence France-Presse

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.
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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.
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“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


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Norway deploys drones, dogs to search for 10 missing after landslide

The landslide struck homes in the village Ask, some 40km north of Oslo, Norway. Photo: EPA

This aerial picture provided by the Norwegian Rescue Service shows the damage after a landslide occurred in a residential area in Ask, near Oslo, Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2020. Several houses have been destroyed, up to 200 people have been evacuated and nine injured in Norway in a landslide at a residential area near the capital Oslo. Norwegian police were alarmed around 4 am Wednesday that a landslide had occured in the village of Ask in the municipality of Gjerdrum, some thirty kilometers (12 miles) north of Oslo. (Norwegian Rescue Service/NTB via AP)

epa08911841 A person is lowered from a rescue helicopter near the site where a big landlide hit a residential area in the village Ask, some 40 kilometers north of Oslo, Norway, 30 December 2020. According to the police, several people are still missing after the landslide. EPA-EFE/JIL YNGLAND NORWAY OUT

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Soldiers remove debris and mud from a landslide caused by heavy rains brought by Storm Eta as the search for victims continues in the buried village of Queja, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Photo: Reuters

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Soldiers and a firefighter remove debris from an area hit by a mudslide, caused by heavy rains brought by Storm Eta, as the search for victims continue in the buried village of Queja, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala November 7, 2020. Esteban Bilba/EFE/Pool via REUTERS

epa08806638 Rescuers transport an injured man on a stretcher after Tropical Storm Eta, at Queja village in San Cristobal Verapaz, Guatemala, 07 November 2020. According to reports, 12 people are dead and 116 missing, most of them in the Queja village, after Tropical Storm Eta hit the nation. EPA-EFE/Esteban Biba

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Rescuers search for missing children, adults
Ground made of quick clay, area not stable



Rescuers continued to search for children and adults who were feared to have been caught in mud and debris.


Nordic nations

Norway deploys drones, dogs to search for 10 missing after landslide

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Rescuers search for missing children, adults Ground made of quick clay, area not stable

Rescuers search for missing children, adults

Ground made of quick clay, area not stable