Police said the investigation is still open and they are trying to determine an exact motive and whether he was working with anyone.
"This is beyond comprehension. It's a nightmare. It's a nightmare for those who have been killed, for their mothers and fathers, family and friends," Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told reporters early today.
Just hours before the shooting at a summer youth camp run by Norway's ruling party on the island of Utoya, explosions ripped through a government building in the capital city of Oslo and left at least seven people dead.
The suspect had been seen in Oslo earlier in the day, according to media reports.
Youth Camp Shooting
After blasts rocked Oslo, the shore of a once idyllic lake at Utoya became a horrific triage area.
"The guy was dressed as a policeman and he was trying to ensure that he was helping us and he said, 'come here,'" said witness Jorgen Benone. "He had a rifle or a sniper which he was using to shoot at us. It was total chaos."
Many tried to swim to safety but the gunman armed with several weapons was able to shoot them as they swam.
Bodies after bodies were pulled from the lake.
The boats and helicopters couldn't move the dead and injured fast enough.
"People were jumping out of windows and running everywhere in all directions - terrified for their lives," said Benone. "Most people ran towards the water hiding behind stones and small hills."
The first scenario is that grassroots Islamist militants based in Norway are behind these seemingly connected attacks. Grassroots jihadist groups are already assumed to exist across Europe, and this assumption — along with previous attacks — has bolstered far-right political parties' popularity across the Continent. Many center-right politicians have also begun raising anti-immigrant policy issues in order to distract from the ongoing economic austerity measures brought about by the European economic crisis. If grassroots Islamist militants are found to be the culprits in Norway, it will simply reinforce the current European political trend that favors the far right. That said, some far-right parties, particularly in Northern Europe, could get a popularity boost sufficient to push them into the political mainstream, and possibly into government. 
If an individual, grassroots or organized domestic group with far-right or neo-Nazi leanings perpetrated the attack, the significance for the rest of Europe will not be large. It could lead to a temporary loss of popularity for the far right, but long-term repercussions for the far right are unlikely since these parties have begun tempering their platforms in order to attract a wider constituency. There is also the possibility that the attacks are the work of a skilled but disturbed individual with grievances against the Labor Party. This possibility would have few long-ranging repercussions beyond a reworking of domestic security procedures in Norway. Another scenario is that the attack was carried out by an international group which may have entered the country some time ago. Regardless of the time frame, if the culprits crossed a border to get into Norway, other European countries will feel very vulnerable; Norway is Europe's northern terminus, and if international militants can get to Norway, they can get to anywhere in Europe. This vulnerability could severely damage the Schengen Agreement, once a symbolic pillar of Europe's unity, which has been under attack in the last several months. The agreement allows visa-free travel between the 25 countries in the Schengen Area (most of which are EU members, but the Schengen Area does include some non-EU members like Norway and Switzerland). The agreement came under pressure when Italy threatened to allow migrants fleeing the Libyan conflict and Tunisian political unrest to gain temporary resident status in order to cross into France. It was Rome's way of forcing the rest of Europe to help it with the influx of migrants. The solution proposed by France and Italy was to essentially establish temporary borders "under very exceptional circumstances." Later, Denmark reimposed border controls, supposedly due to an increase in cross-border crime. 
