Oslo's Central Station Evacuated Due To Suspicious Suitcase

OSLO, July 26 (Reuters) - Oslo's central station was evacuated and all train and bus service halted after a suspicious suitcase was discovered early on Wednesday.

"All the trains and the buses have been cancelled until further notice," an NSB railway official at the scene told Reuters. "Under police orders nobody is allowed to go into the station."

Norway's NTB news agency said someone had apparently placed a suitcase on an airport-bound bus near railway track 19 and then left.

A Reuters witness said the station was surrounded with police cars and fire trucks and that a large area on the south side of the station adjacent to the Thon Hotel Opera was cordoned off.

A hotel receptionist told Reuters the hotel had not received instructions from the police to evacuate.

(Reporting by Oslo newsroom; editing by Mark Heinrich)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Photo by Trond Strandsberg.

Comments

[TERPMOM]

02:28 PM on 07/27/2011

Cowards look for easy targets. Norway WAS one.

[gmartin997]

02:00 PM on 07/27/2011

Norway now knows the meaning of pananoia; the seed of suspicion has been sewn. It was one of their own who awakened them from their apathy, and his statement might bring about change in a country that has welcomed multiculturalism and immigration without regard for the damage it does to their own culture. Even England is learning the error of their ways in that regard. Cultural invasion is much quieter and more subtle than a military invasion. It creeps in as a thief in the night, as Islam has been doing in this country for years, beginning with militant blacks in the '60s. They put on the face of compliance, while they wear the shroud of domination beneath. While I agree with this young man's argument, I can't agree with his methods; yet I do see a religious war in our future -- if it hasn't started already.

[gorash]

11:44 AM on 07/28/2011

Another paranoid right-wingnut spouting the same paranoia over and over and over. Your fears are overblown. It hasn't happened and it never will. You guys are causing more problems than solving them, just like Breivik did. He ironically caused more problems than multiculturism ever will.

[WheresNixon]

01:38 PM on 07/27/2011

If they are concerned about more terrorist attacks ( and rightfully they are) it is because they know that last weeks violent acts were not an isolated instance! They have been repeatedly threatened with violence.

[ArchieBunker II]

12:36 PM on 07/27/2011

Petpal (Peter n Paul II) is in jail,doesn't sound like a muskie (not on person) so must be the mob!

[floodberg]

12:28 PM on 07/27/2011

Norway won't adopt a 'Bunker' mentality; it's not their way.

I don't think Norway will take drastic steps like massively increasing armed police presence to deal with this threat.  I think that Norway will do what it always does; depend on its citizens to protect it, and ask them to be vigilant.  Norway has a strong homogenous culture with critical shared values, which welcomes and assimilates legal immigrants who meet their entrance criteria, including language skills.

I'd bet that authorities are being deluged with calls from worried parents/family/friends about family members who could be potential problems. I'm sure the Norwegian health system is responding with evaluations and threat assessments, and treatment as necessary.

Norwegian culture doesn't demonize criminals; it take the approach that it's the result of coping with untreated mental/physical health problems, identifies and treats those problems, and gradually reintegrate offenders back into the community.  Their crime and recidivism rates are very, very low.

[A George]

12:58 PM on 07/27/2011

And the dead are very dead.

[floodberg]

02:16 PM on 07/27/2011

Yes, AGeorge, they are.  Very astute.

[WheresNixon]

01:36 PM on 07/27/2011

Norway is currently experiencing an unprecedented placement of armed guards in the streets!

[floodberg]

02:26 PM on 07/27/2011

To stabilize the situation and permit for cleanup.  They'll be removed quickly.  Our drastic reactions to 911 hasn't made us safer by any means, but it's made a lot of millionaires.

Politicians have learned that fear is an easy way to manipulate the public into permitting drastic ineffective 'prevention.'  Norway depends on its citizens to be safe.

My mother got to see her homeland in 1981, right after the attempted assassination of the Pope.  In a packed drugstore, she noticed that the gentlemen in front of her looked very much like the King buying a toothbrush.  He noticed her (obviously a tourist,) introduced himself and chatted.  She finally asked him where his security was, and he smiled and said that there were millions of Norwegians who would defend him, and if he died the world would see them upset but not angry or violent.  The others in the drug store just smiled at my mother kindly, but she had the feeling they thought her rather silly. 

Almost 30 years later, I'm getting old enough to understand the intelligen­ce and common sense involved.  Maybe in another 30, I'll see my country learn that money isn't everything and there's a better way for all of us to live.

[kdcfd4]

12:09 PM on 07/27/2011

Poor Norway

[Susan Schmidt Baker]

12:07 PM on 07/27/2011

These people will understandbly be edgy for some time to come.

[thefreedomeagle]

11:50 AM on 07/27/2011

Norway has the least equiped, poorly trained and least finanial supported police force. the Judical system is twice as bad, no life or death sentences, most is 21years. They living in a dream world. Its no wonder the their was so much killing before police intervention. Their priorities are all screwed up. They have no one to blame exceept themselfs.

[gorash]

11:47 AM on 07/28/2011

Yeah and I'm sure America does so much better when crazed gunmen regularly go on killing sprees.

[sidecarman]

10:47 AM on 07/27/2011

those pesky tea partiers

[moebalot]

01:09 PM on 07/27/2011

That’s real helpful; throw Labels around to get the attention of your juvenile friends that you have finally learned to write some words, congratulations you have been promoted to First Grade.

[destin023]

10:37 AM on 07/27/2011

this is the second phase of a passive liberal society with no real safeguards in place vs. the reality of the world. Paranoia now sets in & the once passive society begins to "shift" more to the right realizing there are boogey men willing to infiltrate their Utopian society & cause them harm. It is like the kingdom on the mountain & the valley far below, proceed with humility & caution but be sure to have your message for the future readied underneath the nearest rock..

[gorash]

11:48 AM on 07/28/2011

So liberals are safe so long as right-wing nut cases don't disturb them? lol.

[gorash]

11:50 AM on 07/28/2011

Btw this has almost nothing to do with liberal or conservative, as some other conservative countries are just as vulnerable. And it's not as if the American right has made the country any more safer.

[topgearrt]

10:33 AM on 07/27/2011

So they do have fire trucks and police cars but no boats....hmm...

[reddrn63]

10:02 AM on 07/27/2011

It is sad. These things will occur throughout the world, however terorist acts will be back to back. There will be no safe country.

[invmartyc]

09:41 AM on 07/27/2011

It boggles the mind that there are people who feel they need to kill many innocent victims to get their message(s) across. These victims, who most likely knew nothing nor supported any causes responsible for the killer's grievances. All the killer sees is they need to kill as many people as they can in order to gain as much attention to themselves and their cause. I think the courts should not release any information about the killer(s) or their "manifesto" so their goal is never met. But with today's "right to know" media that would not be allowed.

[A George]

12:59 PM on 07/27/2011

You admit, he got the nations attention. His manifesto on his website got nearly nil.

[gorash]

11:52 AM on 07/28/2011

These people are too selfish and egocentric to consider the needs of others and see other people as being individuals in their own rights. It's all about them, them, them and fulfilling the grandiose image of themselves.

[catsdogs]

09:31 AM on 07/27/2011

Larger Issue, Food for thought – Excerpts from the Guardian:

As David Cameron said he was taking "extremely seriously" Breivik's claims of links to the far right in Britain, the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, called on the government to examine the anti-terror Prevent strategy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jul/25/home-secretary-far-right

Plus

“There have also been claims that Breivik attended EDL demonstrations in London and Newcastle upon Tyne last year. One alleged EDL activist posted a comment online on Sunday stating: "[B]ar one or two doubt the rest of us ever met him, altho he did come over for one of our demo in 2010 … but what he did was wrong."

“Another alleged EDL supporter suggested in a separate forum that she had come across Breivik in the UK. "OMG [Oh, my God] … HIM?! He wrote some books and did talks didn't he?"

Nick Lowles, said there was now "clear evidence" of a direct link between Breivik and the English Defence League.

"The Home Office must now formally classify the EDL as an extremist organisation and allow the police to deploy the same manpower and resources to monitoring their activity as they would other extremist groups. It's also clear that the proposed EDL march in Tower Hamlets cannot be allowed to proceed."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/26/anders-behring-breivik-edl-searchlight

[lohu]

09:05 AM on 07/27/2011

So will Norway arm their police officers now or have them run away from criminals?