15 MISSING, 10 INJURED AFTER LANDSLIDE

A landslide in southern Norway swept away more than a dozen buildings in the early hours of Wednesday, injuring 10 and leaving 15 people missing.

The landslide struck a residential area in the municipality of Gjerdrum, about 30 kilometres north of Oslo. Police said some

700 people had been evacuated.

Photos of the site showed a large crater with destroyed buildings at the bottom of it. Other buildings hung on the edges of the crater, TV footage showed. Two more houses collapsed into the crater on Wednesday afternoon, broadcaster NRK reported.

“It is a catastrophe,” Prime Minister Erna Solberg said after visiting the site.

“There could be people trapped ... but at the same time we can't be sure because it is the New Year's holiday, which means people could be elsewhere,” she said, adding that rescue operations could take a long time.

NORWEGIAN RESCUE SERVICE / NTB / VIA REUTERS A rescue helicopter view shows the aftermath of a landslide in a village just north of Oslo on Wednesday.