Breivik killings could have been prevented says massacre report

The long-awaited report into the July 22 attacks said the domestic intelligence service could also have done more to track him down.

Breivik, 33, bombed the government’s headquarters in Oslo, killing eight people, before travelling to a youth camp on a remote island and running amok, killing 69 more. He is currently awaiting sentencing.

While noting the attacks “may be the most shocking and incomprehensible acts ever experienced in Norway,” the 500-page report by a government commission said the bombing “could have been prevented” if already adopted security measures had been implemented more effectively.

Breivik was able to park a van containing a fertiliser bomb just outside his high-rise target before driving another car to the Labour Party’s youth camp on Utoya, unhindered, while emergency services responded to the bomb.

The report said that a car bomb scenario “at the government complex and several co-ordinated attacks have been recurring scenarios in threat assessments as well as for safety analyses and exercise scenarios for many years.”

The police response was also slowed down by a series of blunders, including flaws in communication systems and the breakdown of an overloaded boat carrying a police anti-terror unit. Meanwhile, Norway’s only police helicopter was left unused, its crew on holiday.

Breivik’s shooting spree, during which his terrified targets ran for their lives, some even taking to the water to try and swim away, lasted for more than one hour before he surrendered to police.

The report said a faster police response could have stopped Breivik’s shooting spree earlier, but recognised that “hardly anyone could have imagined” the attack on Utoya.

“Sadly, however, after repeated school massacres in other countries, an armed desperado who shoots adolescents is indeed conceivable – also in Norway,” it said.

Although Breivik has admitted the attacks, he rejected criminal guilt during his trial, saying his victims had betrayed their country by embracing a multicultural society and claiming to be at the vanguard of a new crusade to save Europe from muslim culture..

Prosecutors have said there were doubts about his sanity and suggested Breivik be committed to compulsory psychiatric care instead of prison.

A ruling is set for August 24.