World

Inquiry announced into Norway attacks

07:26 am on 28 July 2011

Norway's Prime Minister has announced an independent commission of inquiry into the bomb attack and mass shooting in which at least 76 people died.

The BBC reports the speed of the police response to Anders Behring Breivik's second attack, on Utoeya island, has been criticised.

Police took more than an hour to reach reach the island, northwest of Oslo, where the gunman on Friday shot 68 people at a summer camp for the Labour Party's youth wing.

The 32-year-old far-right extremist has admitted carrying out the shootings and a bomb attack on government buildings in Oslo earlier the same day.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference on Wednesday that the commission would be independent and would enable lessons to be learned.

He said there was a lot of respect for the way authorities and agencies handled the operations, but it was important to go through what happened and learn draw from the experiences.