On July 22 2011, the world was shocked by the cruel events happening in Oslo, Norway.
At first a bomb hit the governmental heart of Oslo, then a single person murdered 68 young people on the island Utoya, not far from Oslo.
I visited Oslo not long ago, in April 2011, and so I felt deeply connected to the events.
All this happened just around the corner of where I lived during the few days I stayed there.
Shortly after I heard about these tragical events, I contacted Ole, a fellow photographer that I met while I was in Oslo, and asked about his situation, whether he is OK, and what he personally saw and experienced.
Fortunately he was on holidays while this was happening, but of course he had lots of info from friends and family who were at home at this time.
Ole told me about a photographer he knows, who had covered the events for the biggest Newspaper in Norway.
I asked him whether he could get me into contact with this guy, and so he did.
Kyrre Lien, a young newsphotographer from Oslo, was directly affected by the bombing, was on the spot only minutes after the bomb went off, and also covered Utoya after the shooting had ended.
I wanted to tell his story and get the word out.
Kyrre agreed into answering some questions, and I really want to thank him for taking the time to do so.
Simply click the plus to read the answers.
INTERVIEW
About Kyrre
Kyrre, who are you, what is your profession?
What kind of events do you usually cover?
Image Credit: Kyrre Lien
The Attack
Out office is about 150 meters from the blast site where the bomb in Oslo blew up. I was sitting in sixth floor when suddenly we heard a large blast and the whole building was shaking. The windows was blown out and the fire alarm was activated in the building. I grabbed my two cameras and evacuated the building. The first thing I thought was that our newspaper had been targeted by a bomb. As I came out on the street I started taking photos of wounded people. As I started running towards what I saw was the blast site I tried to stay away from parked cars in case of a another explosion. After a couple of minutes I came to the middle of the blast site. I saw some dead people there and some critically wounded. Photo by Kyrre Lien / VG - Kyrre Lien, VG Photographer Everybody was being treated by bystanders so I focused on my task of documenting the scene. The police or paramedics hadn’t arrived yet because I was there so soon. I could hear people scream for help from the floors in the damaged buildings. After a couple of minutes at the main blast site the police came and cleared out bystanders and photographers as my self. After this I transmitted some photos and took a taxi to a local hospital to take pictures of wounded being brought there. After some time there I was called by my news editor. They had heard about some shooting at Utoya. At that time the situation was very chaotic. We did not know if there was one person or a group trying to attack Norway. I drove to Utoya with two journalists from VG. There we took pictures of wounded people being brought to shore by paramedics. Utoya is an island about 500m from the main land. We stayed the whole night there talking to bystanders and trying to find out what happened. While many of the wounded was taken away before we came there, we slowly understood the horror of what had happened there. During the night we found out how many people that had been killed there a hour before we came there. Photo by Kyrre Lien / VG What happened on July 22?
The first thing I thought was that our newspaper had been targeted by a bomb.
What happened then?
When the bomb went of outside our office I immediately knew this was something that was important to document with pictures. Did you hesitate about covering the story?
How long did you stay?
After I got some sleep I slowly realised what I had become a witness to. That was difficult to understand. We have gotten some professional help by our newspaper. It has been good to talk to people about what we have seen and felt. It has been and is a difficult time for me because I have seen a lot of things that I was not prepared to see. At the same time I think it is important to try to find something positive out of this so that I can learn. It has been important to keep my head cold and heart warm.Was it hard to do your job there?
For more pictures by Kyrre Lien from that day please visit Kyrres Website.
I really want to thank Kyrre and the VG for allowing me to include some photos.
My thoughts are with the victims and their families.
Yours