'Eighty dead' in Norway shooting

At least 80 people died when a gunman opened fire at an island youth camp in Norway, hours after a bomb attack on the capital, Oslo, the BBC News reported.

Oslo police are questioning a 32-year-old Norwegian man in connection with Friday's attacks. The man was arrested on tiny Utoeya island outside Oslo, where police say he opened fire on teenagers.

Earlier, the number of dead from the island shooting spree, which is among the world's most deadly, was put at 10.

The Oslo bomb attack killed at least seven people. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, whose offices were among those badly hit by the blast, described the attacks as "bloody and cowardly".

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but the suspect is reported by local media to have had links with right-wing extremists.

Hundreds of young people were attending the summer camp organised by the ruling Labour Party on Utoeya island.

Eyewitnesses described how a tall, blond man dressed as a policeman opened fire indiscriminately, prompting camp attendees to jump into the water to try and escape the hail of bullets. Some of the teenagers were shot at as they tried to swim to safety.

Armed police were deployed to the island but details of the operation to capture the suspect remain unclear.

Police say they discovered many more victims after searching the area around the island.

"It goes without saying that this gives dimensions to this incident that are exceptional," police director Oystein Maeland was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

Police warned the death toll may rise further as rescue teams continued to scour the waters around the island.

The gunman is reported to have been armed with a handgun, an automatic weapon and a shotgun.

"He travelled on the ferry boat from the mainland over to that little inland island posing as a police officer, saying he was there to do research in connection with the bomb blasts," NRK journalist Ole Torp told the BBC.

"He asked people to gather round and then he started shooting, so these young people fled into the bushes and woods and some even swam off the island to get to safety."

One 15-year-old eyewitness described how she saw what she thought was a police officer open fire.

"He first shot people on the island. Afterward he started shooting people in the water," youth camp delegate Elise told the Associated Press news agency.