Sundvollen (Norway), July 23
The Norwegian police searched for more victims on Saturday after a suspected right-wing zealot killed at least 92 persons in a shooting spree and bomb attack that have traumatised a once-placid country.

Anders Behring Breivik (32) was arrested after Friday’s massacre of young people on a tiny holiday island that was hosting the annual summer camp for the youth wing of Norway’s ruling Labour party.

The police is questioning Breivik who has been also charged with the bombing of Oslo’s government district building that killed seven persons hours earlier. Witnesses said the gunman, wearing a police uniform, went on a prolonged shooting orgy on Utoeya island northwest of Oslo, picking off his prey unchallenged as youngsters scattered in panic or jumped in the lake to swim for the mainland.

“I just saw people jumping into the water, about 50 persons swimming towards the shore. People were crying, shaking, they were terrified,” said Anita Lien, 42, who lives by Tyrifjord lake, a few hundred metres (yards) from Utoeya. “They were so young, between 14 and 19 years old," Lien added. The police put the death toll at 85, but did not say how many persons had been wounded in the shooting.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, capturing the shock this normally quiet nation of 4.8 million is experiencing, said: “A paradise island has been transformed into a hell.” "Never since the Second World War has our country been hit by a crime on this scale," Stoltenberg said.

He said the culprits would not intimidate one of Europe's most peaceful countries. “People have lived through a nightmare that very few of us can imagine," he said. "The coming days will show who is responsible and what kind of punishment they will get,” the PM added. "The message to whoever attacked us, the message from all of Norway is that you will not destroy us, you will not destroy our democracy and our ideals for a better world, ” he said.

The police combed the island and the lake, even using a mini-submarine to search the water, police inspector Bjoerne Erik Sem-Jacobsen said. “We don't know how many people were on the island, therefore we have to search further,” said Jacobsen.

The police was also checking media reports that some witnesses believed Breivik had an accomplice. “There are no concrete reports of a second gunman, although we're not excluding any possibilities,” said Oslo police spokeswoman Trine Dyngeland.

The suspect, tall and blond, owned an organic farming company called Breivik Geofarm, which a supply firm said he had used to buy fertiliser --- possibly to make the Oslo bomb.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and many world leaders, condemned the Norway attacks. “This tragedy strikes right at the heart of the soul of a peaceful people,” she said. — Agencies