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A woman looks towards Utoya and sits among floral tributes to the victims of the July 2011 attack. AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis/PA
Breivik

Survivors of Breivik gun attack describe shootings

Victims of the Utoya island attack describe their efforts to escape from the gunman.

THE OSLO TRIAL of the man who admits carrying out a double terror attack which killed 77 people in Norway last summer has been hearing evidence from some of the survivors of the Utoya attack.

Breivik has admitted planning and carrying out a bombing in Oslo and a mass shooting on the island of Utoya on 22 July 2011.

However, he denies criminal responsibility.

Speaking in court today, Utyoa survivor Marius Toft described the attempts he and a friend made to try to escape from Breivik when he began opening fire at a Labour Party youth camp. He said that the two had tried to climb down a sheer cliff face to hide from the gunman when his friend slipped and fell, journalist Lars Bevanger tweeted from the court. His friend was fatally injured in the fall.

Other survivors spoke of their efforts to run away or swim from the island even after they had been wounded by Breivik.

One girl spoke said she was shot in the leg before making an escape by boat with other survivors. She said Breivik fired at the boat as they rowed away from the island, Trygve Sorvaag tweeted from the court.

When police arrived on the scene, the survivors in the boat called on them not to shoot because they had thought that Breivik was a police officer too.

Sorvaag also tweeted about the demographic of the attack’s survivors:

If the court finds Breivik sane, he could face 21 years in prison, or an alternative custodial arrangement which could see him detained for so long as he is considered a threat to society.

If declared insane, Breivik would be committed to psychiatric care indefinitely, for so long as he is considered ill.

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