Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

OSLO

Major landslide hits Norwegian village

A major landslide hit the village of Ask, northeast of Oslo, on Wednesday night, destroying at least 14 houses, injuring at least ten people, and forcing 500 people to be evacuated

Published: 30 December 2020 09:08 CET
Updated: 31 December 2020 11:34 CET
Major landslide hits Norwegian village
Destroyed houses can be seen in a crater caused by the landslide in Ask, outside Oslo. Photo: Fredrik Hagen / NTB / AFP
On Wednesday evening 11 people were still unaccounted for, some thought to be children, according to media reports.
 
“We believe that there are people in that landslide area, but whether it is 11 or fewer we can not determine with certainty,” chief of operations Roger Pettersen told broadcaster NRK.
 
Police received the first reports of the landslide at 4am in the morning. 
 
“The situation is very dramatic. There has been a major landslide and we are in the process of evacuating residents from the area,” the local mayor, Anders Østensen, told the VG newspaper on Wednesday morning.
 
“Several of them have lost their homes, and they are of course having a tough time. There are many who are very upset and scared.” 
 

 
The village also has an elderly care home, whose residents also had to be evacuated. 

 
 
Roger Pettersen, who was leading the police's response, said at 9am that all those believed injured had now arrived at hospital.
 
“The injured have been transported to hospital and to the emergency room. In addition, we have a retirement home that has been evacuated and extensive evacuation is underway for the homes that are within the evacuation zone.
 
Ten people were receiving treatment for injuries. The most seriously injured is being treated at Oslo's Ullevål hospital, while four who have lighter injuries are being treated at Akershus University Hospital. A further five are being treated at an accident and emergency department. 
 
Norwegian media said the size of the landslide area was 210,000 square metres, with the slide leaving a deep ravine through the village, which is home to about 5,000 people. 
 
Around 700 people have been evacuated from their homes, and the municipality warned as many as 1,500 could need to leave the region out of safety concerns.
 
Photo:  Fredrik Hagen / NTB / AFP
 

 
Source: Google Maps
 
Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg, who travelled to the village of around 1,000 people on Wednesday, described the landslide as “one of the largest” the country had seen.
 
“It's a dramatic experience to be here,” Solberg told reporters, expressing particular concern for those still missing. “The situation is still so unstable with the mud that it's not yet possible
to do anything other than helicopter rescues,” she added.
 
Erna Solberg offered her sympathies in a post on Twitter, saying: “It hurts to see how the forces of nature have ravaged Gjerdrum. My thoughts go to everyone affected by the landslide.”

 
 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

RENTING

Rental prices in Norway’s biggest cities continue to rise

The cost of renting in Norway's four largest cities rose overall during the third quarter, with prices up six percent this year, figures from Real Estate Norway show. 

Published: 11 October 2022 11:33 CEST
Rental prices in Norway's biggest cities continue to rise

A sharp increase in rent prices in Norway continued throughout the third quarter, figures from Real Estate Norway (Eiendom Norge) released on Tuesday show. 

“Real Estate Norway’s rental housing price statistics show a historically strong rise in rental housing prices in Norway in the third quarter,” Henning Lauridsen, CEO of Real Estate Norway, stated in a report on the latest figures. 

Growth was most robust in Stavanger and Oslo, according to Real Estate Norway. 

“The strong growth in rental prices we have seen in the wake of the pandemic continued in the third quarter, and it is particularly in the Stavanger region and in Oslo that the growth in rental prices is strong,” Lauridsen said. 

Stavanger and nearby Sandnes saw the largest price increases, with the cost of renting there increasing by 4.7 percent during the third quarter. During the same period, rents in Oslo increased by 2.5 percent, while a marginal 0.3 percent rise was recorded in Trondheim. 

While the cost of renting in Norway’s four largest cities overall increased by 2 percent, rental prices in Bergen declined. There, rents fell by 2.5 percent in the third quarter.

Lauridsen said that the increase in rental prices was likely to continue due to several factors. High inflation, interest rates, increased taxes on rental properties and a low supply of homes on the market all contributed to increasing rents. 

However, he did note that the supply of rental homes on the market had increased in Trondheim and Oslo since the summer. 

Lauridsen said that the least well-off financially were being hit hardest by rent rises. Previously, the Norwegian government has informed The Local that it will not introduce a temporary cap on rent increases. 

READ MORE: Norway’s government rules out a temporary rent cap

SHOW COMMENTS