About Utoeya island

Utoeya massacre survivors return to island

Utoeya island is a very beautifulA survivor of the massacre on Norway's Utoeya island has joined several hundred people there a day before a national day of remembrance for the victims of Anders Behring Breivik.

Adrian Pracon, 21, is one of the 600-or-so survivors of the massacre at Utoeya island, where Breivik killed 69 people, most of them youngsters at a Labour Party youth camp.

At least 1,000 people are expected to travel to Utoeya today.

The relatives of those who were killed came to the island yesterday to mourn and hear from police where and how they died.

Mr Pracon came face-to-face several times with the killer on 22 July. During one encounter, he saw him coming out of the woods and shooting at people.

'He was shouting that he was going to kill us all,' he said. 'He turned towards me. You feel trapped, like you have no place to go or that there is nothing you can do. You just hope that he is going to shoot in the head, in the heart to make it go fast. All I could say was: 'Don't shoot'.'

'I remember him pointing the machine gun at me for quite a long time before he took it down, turned and walked away.'

Later, the young man lay still on the ground, pretending to be dead. 'I was shaking terribly, I was also breathing very fast but it all stopped at that moment because the body understands that it must be still,' he said.

'Suddenly I could hear him place his boots right in front of my face. I could feel the warmth of the gun barrel he was pointing at me. I thought: 'Now it is over. Now he's got me'.'

The killer aimed at the young man's and fired a shot. He missed and the bullet entered the left shoulder.

Lars Weisaeth, a professor of disaster psychiatry at the University of Oslo said returning to the massacre site will help survivors come to terms with the trauma they experienced.

'If you have survived a harrowing experience, you do not have a narrative, a continuous story to tell. What you remember is a series of fragmented, extremely strong impressions - visual and acoustic,' he said.

'(Going back will) link this together so that they can have a very exact picture of the physical circumstances.'

Several hundreds of Red Cross volunteers, health personnel, police and psychiatrists will be on hand to help the survivors through the day.