Suspect 'wanted a revolution'

He has been charged with terrorism and will appear before a court tomorrow.

In all, 92 people were killed in the attacks and 97 were wounded. There are still people missing at both scenes, and divers are searching the waters around the island of Utoya for bodies.

Little is known about the man who police say set off a car bomb at government headquarters in Oslo and then, hours later, opened fire on young people at an island political retreat. Both targets were linked to Norway’s left-leaning Labour Party, and authorities have said Breivik held anti-Muslim views and posted on Christian fundamentalist websites.

“He wanted a change in society and, from his perspective, he needed to force through a revolution,” his lawyer Geir Lippestad told public broadcaster NRK.

“He wished to attack society and the structure of society.”

Witnesses at the summer youth camp described the way Breivik lured them close by saying he was a police officer before raising his weapons. People hid and fled into the water to escape the rampage; some played dead.

While some on the island reported there was a second assailant, Mr Lippestad said his client claims to have acted alone.

Police took 90 minutes from the first shot to reach the island because they did not have quick access to a helicopter and could not find a boat to get to the scene just several hundred yards offshore.

Breivik surrendered when they reached him – but not before 85 people had been gunned down.

The shooting came on the heels of what police said was an “Oklahoma city-type” bombing in Oslo’s centre, targeting a government building, allegedly perpetrated by a home-grown assailant and used the same mix of fertiliser and fuel that blew up a building in the US in 1995.

The bomb was packed into a panel truck outside the building that houses the prime minister’s office in Oslo.

Seven people were killed and police said there were still body parts in the building. The Oslo University Hospital said it had so far received 11 wounded from the bombing and 19 people from the camp shooting.

Yesterday a farm supply store said it had alerted police that Breivik had bought six tonnes of fertiliser.

Police and soldiers were searching for evidence and potential bombs at the farm where he lived south of Oslo yesterday.

Havard Nordhagen Olsen, a neighbour, said Breivik moved in about one moth ago, next to his house, and said he seemed like “a regular guy”.

Mazyar Keshvari, a spokesman for Norway’s Progress Party – which is conservative but within the political mainstream – said the suspect was a paying member of the party’s youth wing from 1999 to 2004.

Prime minister Jens Stoltenberg called the tragedy peacetime Norway’s deadliest day.

“This is beyond comprehension. It’s a nightmare. It’s a nightmare for those who have been killed, for their mothers and fathers, family and friends,” he said.

Reports that the assailant was motivated by political ideology were shocking to many Norwegians, who pride themselves on the openness of their society. Indeed, Norway is almost synonymous with the kind of free expression being exercised by the youth at the political retreat.

King Harald, Norway’s figurehead monarch, vowed yesterday that those values would remain unchanged.

“I remain convinced that the belief in freedom is stronger than fear. I remain convinced in the belief of an open Norwegian democracy and society. I remain convinced in the belief in our ability to live freely and safely in our own country,” he said.

The monarch, his wife and the prime minister led the nation in mourning, visiting grieving relatives of the scores of youths gunned down. Buildings around the capital lowered their flags to half-mast and people streamed to Oslo Cathedral to light candles and lay flowers.