A huge landslide in southern Norway has swept away more than a dozen buildings in the early hours of the morning, leaving 10 people injured and 15 unaccounted for.
Houses were buried under the dark mud as the landslide struck a residential area in the municipality of Gjerdrum, around 19 miles north of Oslo.
Some 700 people had been evacuated from the area, said police. According to reports, at least one person has been seriously injured.
Prime minister Erna Solberg told reporters that the incident was “a catastrophe” after she visited the site, adding: “There could be people trapped… but at the same time we can’t be sure because it is the New Year’s holiday, which means people could be elsewhere.”
She said rescue operations could take a long time, and described the situation as “so unstable that it is impossible to do any [rescue] effort other than from helicopters”.
Images from the site showed an enormous crater with ruined buildings lying at the bottom of it, with other buildings clinging on to the edge. Two more houses collapsed into the crater in the afternoon, reported broadcaster NRK.
Helicopters hovered over the area and lowered emergency responders towards the collapsed houses as night fell. Rescue operations would continue through Wednesday night into Thursday, said police.
The force said in a statement about those missing: “We don’t know if these people are in the landslide area, if they are away on holiday or in another way unable to contact police.”
The local municipality warned that up to 1,500 people may need to leave the area amid fears over the condition of the ground.
A spokesperson for Norway’s Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE), Laila Hoivik, told AFP that the landslide was a “quick clay slide” that measured about 300m by 700m (985ft by 2,300ft), and was the “largest landslide in recent times” in the country.
According to NRK, heavy rainfall in recent days may have caused the clay roil in the area to shift and become unstable.
Quick clay is a type of clay that can be found mostly in the northern hemisphere in certain regions, including Norway, Canada, Russia and the US. If disturbed, it can lose a significant loss of strength and collapse.
Norway’s King Harald said the incident had “made a deep impression on me and my family”.
“My thoughts are with everyone affected, the injured, those who lost their homes and are now living in fear and uncertainty of the full extent of the disaster,” he said in a statement.
Additional reporting by agencies
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