'We have discussed Breivik's mental health. But we haven't discussed the political ideology behind attack'
Church bells rang out across Norway Thursday as the prime minister called on the country to stand up against the hatred that drove right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik to go on a killing spree a decade ago that left 77 people dead.
Ten years ago, Anders Behring Breivik, disguised as a police officer, tracked and gunned down 69 people, mostly teenagers, at a summer camp run by the youth league of Norway's Labour Party on the island. "Ten years ago, we met hatred with love," Stoltenberg said in a speech during a church memorial service on Thursday.
In 2019, Philip Manshaus opened fire on a mosque on the outskirts of Oslo and was overpowered by worshippers preventing any serious injuries. However, just before the attack, Manshaus had shot and killed his Asian-born stepsister in a race-motivated killing. "We've not managed to have a debate about how young white men, growing up like one of us in Norway, going to the same schools and living in the same neighbourhoods, can develop such extreme views that they feel they can kill for them," survivor Astrid Eide Hoem said.
Hiding by a cliffside near the water, she sent what she thought would be a last text to her mother but she managed to escape.