Norway girl's text message: 'Mum...people are dying here' newspapers, message, exchange, between, island

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Norway girl's text message: 'Mum...people are dying here'


OSLO - Moving testimony emerged Wednesday from a text-message exchange between a 16-year-old girl hiding in shoreside bushes as a killer went on the rampage on Norway's Utoeya island, and her mother.


"Mum, tell the police to hurry up, people are dying here," Julie Bremnes told her mother during a 46-message conversation that lasted more than 75 minutes as the massacre unfolded, and which made the front pages of Norwegian newspapers.


The girl warned her mother Marianne when she first heard the gun shots on the island where she was attending a summer youth camp for Labour Party activists.


Julie ran and hid among rocks on the Utoeya shore with friends.


The conversation begins at 1542 GMT, and the mother does everything to try to reassure her daughter, on the progress of police towards the island and Anders Behring Breivik's eventual arrest, as the terrifying ordeal develops.


In response to the first message alerting her to people dying, Marianne says: "I'm taking care of it, Julie. The police are on their way. Can you call me?"


"No," the girl replies, adding in subsequent messages: "Tell the police that there is a madman who is wandering around shooting at people" and "Get them to hurry up."


It emerges from the exchange that Utoeya victims believed that helicopters circling above belonged to the police, whereas in fact they were Norwegian media choppers.


Key extracts, published by Norwegian daily Verdens Gang, show:


Mother: "The police are aware of what's going on and they have had lots of calls. It will be fine, Julie. The police are calling us now. Get in touch every five minutes, please?"

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Daughter: "OK."


Daughter: "We are scared of dying."


Mother: "I know my dear. Stay down, don't go anywhere! The police are on their way, if they're not already there. Are you seeing people who are wounded or dead?"


Daughter: "We are hiding in the rocks along the shore."


Daughter: "I'm not panicking, but I'm scared to death."


Mother: "I know darling. We are terribly proud of you too. Can you still hear gunfire?"


Daughter: "No."


Shortly after 6:15 pm:


Daughter: "The police are here."


Mother: "The man who is firing is clearly in police uniform. Be careful. What's happening now?"


At 6:30 pm: "We don't know."


Mother: "Can you talk now?"


Daughter: "No."


Daughter: "He's still shooting."


Mother: "It's all over the media now, all the focus is on Utoeya. Be careful. If possible, get to the mainland and stay with Grand-dad."


Daughter: "I'm still alive."


Daughter: "We are hearing shooting, we haven't dared move."


Mother: "Good. They're now evacuating (people), the TV is saying."


Daughter: "I hope someone is going to come soon. Can they not arrest him soon?!!"


Mother: "Anti-terror police are there, they're trying to stop him."


Daughter: "OK."


Mother: "Are you there?"


Daughter "Yes. The helicopters are circling around us."


Mother: "So they are seeing you at least?"


Daughter: "They are looking for people in the water, they're not yet coming for us!"


7:01 pm:


Daughter: "What's the latest?"


Mother: "The police are also heading to Utoeya by boat. It's not clear what's happening with the shooter, so stay calm. Wait till someone comes to get you."


Mother: "That's it, they've got there."


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http://www.vancouversun.com/Norw ... /5166256/story.html


An aerial view shows Utoeya island Thursday, one day before a shooting which took place at a meeting of the youth wing of Norway's ruling Labour Party. A gunman killed 84 people in the shooting, police said.