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Utoya memorial defaced with swastika on anniversary of attack

Norwegian police said Monday they had arrested two men for spraying a swastika on a memorial commemorating the 2011 July 22 twin attacks in which 77 people were killed.

Published: 23 July 2019 09:08 CEST

Utoya memorial defaced with swastika on anniversary of attack

Photo: AFP

According to local media, residents of Tonsberg, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Oslo, noticed that the memorial had been defaced in the early morning of the anniversary of the attacks carried out by Neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik.

In 2011, Breivik, disguised as a police officer, tracked and gunned down 69 people, most of them teenagers, at a Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utoya, shortly after killing eight people in a bombing outside a government
building in Oslo.

The defaced memorial is part of a series of granite sculptures offered to the various municipalities where the victims were from.

Later on Monday police announced on Twitter that they had arrested two men, aged around 20, for vandalising the memorial.

“This is terrible. It's hard not to think that this is someone with a political motive,” Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg told news agency NTB.

“If this is just a prank, it's extremely insensitive to do it on a day like this,” she added.

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Today in Norway: A roundup of the latest news on Tuesday

Oslo Operahus .Photo by Arvid Malde on Unsplash

Only one in ten Norwegians plan to travel abroad this summer

Around ten percent of people in Norway are planning to take a holiday abroad this summer, according to a survey carried out by tourism organisation NHO Reiseliv.

Seven out of ten respondents said they still plan to holiday in Norway this year, even if they receive a vaccination before the holidays start.

READ MORE: ‘My arguments didn’t matter’: How I ended up in a hotel quarantine in Norway

Viken and Vestland are this year’s most popular travel destinations for Norwegians planning a “staycation”. Young people were the most likely to want to remain in Norway this summer. Just under half of those aged between 18 and 29 said they wished to stay in Norway this summer.

Third of Utøya survivors have received abuse or threats

A third of Utøya survivors have been victims of hate speech or received threats, according to a new survey.

Three-quarters of respondents said that the reason they received the abuse was linked directly to the Utøya terror attack, the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Studies (NKVTS) found.

The massacre on Utøya was the second of two terror attacks carried out by Anders Breivik on July 22nd, 2011. Of the 69 people who died in the attack, 32 were under the age of 18.

Fewer in Oslo willing to ditch cars

A climate survey carried out by the city of Oslo has shown that fewer people than before are willing to cut back on using their cars. The proportion of those who think that Oslo city centre should be car-free has fallen to 45 percent from 52 percent last year.

READ ALSO: Could Norway introduce mandatory inbuilt car breathalysers

When asked whether Oslo City Council had gone too far in removing cars from the city centre, almost half said that they believed that this was the case.

“A change in the attitude around these measures may be due to more people feeling dependent on cars during the pandemic. There has been a lot of debate about measures that have been introduced or are planned to be introduced,” Heidi Sørensen, Director of the Climate Agency, told the Dagsavisen newspaper

Tighter Coronavirus measures in Trondheim

Gyms, museums and swimming pools have been closed, and alcohol service in hospitality has been stopped in Trondheim. The new measures come barely a week after restrictions were last tightened.

“We need to shut down most of Trondheim to get control. It is only days since we last tightened measures, but we are in a situation where we must take even stronger action,” Morten Wolden, the municipal director for Trondheim, told state broadcaster NRK.

Norway reports 292 new Covid-19 cases

On Monday, 292 new coronavirus infections were registered in Norway. This is a drop of 52 compared to the seven-day average of 344.

In Oslo, 48 cases were recorded, an increase of two on the capital’s seven day average of 46.

The R-number or reproduction rate in Norway is currently 1.0. This means that every ten people that are infected, will, on average, only infect another ten people, indicating that the infection level is stable.

Total number of Covid-19 cases so far. Source: NIPH

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