Norwegian minister admits errors in killing spree response

The scene of Norway’s killing spree that claimed the lives of 69 people in July has been shown to the media for the first time.

This on the same day the country’s justice minister expressed regret for errors in the way police responded to the killings.

The reporters who visited Utoeya island were accompanied by the leader of the Labour Party youth wing, whose members were targeted in the rampage.

Eskil Pedersen said: “I always have mixed feelings when I go back, of course, I think about the 22 of July and the dreadful things that happened that day. But I have been here every year and every summer since 2000. A lot of my time as a youth has been here on Utoeya island and I have many good memories as well.”

Anders Behring Breivik’s victims on the island were mostly young people. Eight other people died when he set off a bomb earlier in Oslo.

The regret expressed by the justice minister is seen as the clearest acknowledgement yet by the government that some criticism of the police was justified.

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