Norwegian police charged a man Saturday whom they describe as a right-wing Christian fundamentalist in connection with a deadly bombing in Oslo and shooting spree at a summer camp for liberal youth that killed at least 92 people.

A profile of the man who may be responsible for the most deadly attack in Norway since World War II is beginning to emerge. He has been identified by Norwegian media as Anders Behring Breivik, who on various social media and Internet platforms claimed to love guns and fear multiculturalism and immigration, especially of Muslims. –BF

The New York Times:

In a Facebook page and a Twitter account set up under that name days before the rampage, suggesting a conscious effort to construct a public persona, he cited philosophers from Kant to Machiavelli. Though there did not appear to be calls for violence in his Internet postings, he hinted at his will to act in his lone Twitter post, paraphrasing John Stuart Mill: “One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests.”

While the motives for the rampage remained obscure, fresh details provided by witnesses on Saturday provided a clearer picture of the terror on the island of Utoya, a wooded retreat accessible only by boat about 19 miles northwest of Oslo where, the police said, at least 85 people, some as young as 16, were killed in the attack on a summer camp there.

Most of the 600 campers, many from political families, had gathered in the main assembly building for a briefing on the bombing in Oslo. Relatives of many of the youths worked in the vicinity of the blast.

As soon as the shooting started, people panicked, witnesses said, running in all directions, tumbling down the island’s rocky hill in an attempt to reach the sea. Even after many made it into the water, the gunman calmly and methodically shot at those who were swimming.

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