Rescue workers have uncovered a seventh body from a landslide that buried homes in a village near Norway’s capital, police said Sunday, with a two-year-old girl and her father among the dead.
The tragedy occurred early on Wednesday when houses were destroyed and shifted hundreds of meters under a torrent of mud in the village of Ask, 25 kilometer (15 miles) northeast of Oslo.
Police spokesman Bjorn Christian Willersrud told journalists they hoped to find more survivors in the landslide zone. “It is still a rescue operation until we decide otherwise,” he said.
Earlier Sunday, the head of the rescue operation, Goran Syversen, told reporters: “We are working hard in the depression created by the landslide.
“We have five teams working at the same time. They are doing very difficult work which is not without risk. Nevertheless, we are making good progress.”
Police said the latest body was found near where two others had been recovered, but gave no further details. The teams, backed up by sniffer dogs, helicopters, and drones, have now found three bodies on Sunday, one on Saturday, and three on Friday.
Local residents left candles near the site of the tragedy.
Five of the recovered victims have been identified, including a woman in her fifties and her 29-year-old son, and a 40-year-old man and his two-year-old daughter.
The first victim to be recovered, on January 1, was a 31-year-old man.
Earlier police published the names of all 10 people, including the two-year-old and a 13-year-old, who went missing on Wednesday.
Ten people were also injured in the landslide, including one seriously who was transferred to Oslo for treatment.
About 1,000 people of the town’s population of 5,000 have been evacuated, because of fears for the safety of their homes as the land continues to move.