Norwegian killer called twice to surrender during attack, hung up both times

Police say the first phone call came 26 minutes before the police arrested Anders Behring Breivik (L).

SCANPIX NORWAY/REUTERS

Associated Press

OSLO—The man behind the Norway attacks that killed 77 people last month hung up twice on authorities after calling to surrender during the shooting at a youth camp on Utoya island, police said Thursday.

The first phone call came 26 minutes before officers arrested Breivik, who identified himself as the commander in an anti-communist resistance movement, police said.

“I am at Utoya at the moment. I want to surrender,” he said, according to a transcript distributed at a news conference.

Local police chief Sissel Hammer said “the operator took the conversation seriously and called back. No one answered.”

Breivik called again one minute before being captured and asked to be transferred to the commander of the anti-terror police unit.

“I am a commander in the Norwegian resistance movement,” the shooter said. “I have fulfilled my operation, so I want to ... surrender.”

Once again, Breivik hung up, but he surrendered to police one minute later.

Anders Behring Breivik’s lawyer Geir Lippestad told Norwegian daily Verdens Gang, that the self-confessed killer said he shot at two groups of young people at Utoya and also fired over the lake in between two phone calls.

Police officials also said that based on information they received from calls about the shooting on the island, they believed at the time that two to five attackers were involved and that they had various weapons and explosives available.

Breivik detonated a car bomb outside government buildings in Oslo, killing eight, and then shot dead 69 others at the youth camp outside Oslo on July 22.

The last funeral for the victims who died from Breivik’s shooting spree was held on Thursday.