‘Oslove’ – Norway’s powerful answer to terror of twin attacks

They call it Oslove, written with a heart-shaped second “O”, and a week after the attacks that killed 77 people in Norway the symbol of a peace-loving nation’s response is everywhere.

The word is carved into rocks marking a mainland jetty used by residents to sail across to Utoeya island, where Anders Behring Breivik gunned down 68 mostly young people about an hour away from the capital.

A car bomb blast targeting government offices in the city centre also claimed by Behring Breivik killed another eight.

In the night-time bars where Oslo’s young are letting their hair down once more after going through an emotional wringer, Norwegians greet strangers with a kiss and the whispered mantra, while outside the city cathedral it crops up time and again in the giant garden tribute to the dead that has sprung up there.

“It’s my fourth visit, and each time it has got bigger,” said Henrik, 56, of the sea of flowers, flags, candles and messages of condolence, 50 metres long and 20 wide.

“It feels good to be here, that’s why I come. It’s fantastic to see all this love,” he adds.

Desperate to find a way to preserve this outpouring of emotion, the mayor of Oslo has said the pictures drawn by children and the other messages left at the site will be gathered up and housed at Norway’s national archives.

The flowers, meanwhile, will be turned into compost, to give new life somewhere else.

“It didn’t really hit me when I saw it on television,” said Oganda Mawanda, a 28-year-old African immigrant, of the floral tribute. “But once you’re here in front of it... It’s just so terrible what happened.”

A mother brings her two little children, aged six and three, to place roses at the scene.

“I tried to explain to them what happened, without going into the details,” says Siri Merete Ek of the murderous rampage.

One card jutting out sums up the feelings of everyone who stops.

“For those who have left us, for those who have lost someone, for those who have survived, for those who grieve, for those in fear, for those who are sad – thoughts of comfort filled with love,” it reads.

Nearby, a boy of five-and-a-half places his offering – depicting balloons floating off into the sky – among the pile.

The scene is just a short hop from the court-house where Behring Breivik made his brief appearance before a judge on Monday, to be remanded in custody as forensics and an international intelligence operation gather the evidence needed to pursue a unique trial next year.

That appearance marked the only time Oslo witnessed an angry public reaction – even then, essentially contained to one youth lashing out at the armoured car bringing in the suspect via an underground back-entrance.

Even as the judge gathered the parties in his closed chambers, Oslove had taken root inside the building with a Dutch-Russian couple making their wedding vows on the first floor in a pre-arranged ceremony.

The world’s deadliest shootings

The massacre at the Norwegian island of Utoeya in which at least 85 people were killed is the deadliest of recent times.

Before that, the worst shooting massacre was in 1996 when 35 people were killed in Australia. Here is a list of the deadliest shootings of the last 25 years:

• A bomb attack on government buildings in Oslo that kills seven is followed by a shooting at a summer holiday camp organised by the ruling Labour party on the island of Utoeya, near to the capital. A man is arrested for carrying out both attacks and 85 people are so far listed as dead.

• January 8, 2011 – US: Six people are killed and 12 injured – including Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords – in an attack in Tucson, Arizona.

• June 2, 2010 – Britain: A taxi driver kills 12 people in Cumbria (north-west England) before committing suicide.

• November 5, 2009 – US: An army psychiatrist kills 13 on a military base in Ford Hood, Texas.

• April 3, 2009 – US: A man runs amok at a welcome centre for immigrants in Binghamton (New York state), killing 13.

• March 11, 2009 – Germany: 15 people, including nine students and three teachers, are killed by a 17-year-old in a high school in Winnenden, near Stuttgart. He later commits suicide.

• September 23, 2008 – Finland: A 22-year-old student commits suicide after killing nine other students and a teacher in a school in Kahajoki.

• April 16, 2007 – US: A student originally from Korea kills 32 people at Virginia Tech university, Blacksburg, Virginia. The 23-year-old then commits suicide.

• April 26, 2002 – Germany: 16 people are killed (13 teachers, two high school students and a policeman) at a school in Erfurt in central Germany by a 19-year-old who then commits suicide.

• March 27, 2002 – France: A man kills eight local councillors in the middle of a meeting and injures 19 others, 14 seriously. He later commits suicide in custody.

• September 27, 2001 – Switzerland: 14 members of parliament and local government are killed as they meet in Zug, near Lucerne. The killer then turns the gun on himself.

• April 20, 1999 – US: Two high school students go on the rampage at Columbine High School, Littleton (Colorado), killing 12 students and a teacher before committing suicide.

• April 28, 1996 – Australia: A gunman kills 35 at Port Arthur, on the island of Tasmania.

• March 13, 1996 – Britain: 16 children and their teacher are gunned down in Dunblane, Scotland. The killer commits suicide.

• September 24, 1995 – France: A teenager kills 16 people in the towns of Cuers and Sollies-Pont in south-east France before committing suicide.

• December 6, 1989 – Canada: A man wanting to exact revenge on feminists kills 14 young women at a college in Montreal and then commits suicide.