One Georgian Survives, Another Missing in Norway Attack
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 23 Jul.'11 / 23:54

A Georgian girl is among survivors and another girl from Georgia is missing after at least 84 people were shot dead by a gunman disguised as a policeman at a youth summer camp on Norway's island of Utøya.

Natia Chkhetiani, who survived in the attack, told Georgia's Rustavi 2 TV by phone from Oslo late on Saturday, that last time she saw her friend, Tamta Liparteliani, was shortly before the shooting began. 

The two are members of the movement, Young Socialists of Georgia, and were among around 700 participants of the summer camp on island of Utøya organized by the youth wing of the Norway's ruling Labor Party. 

Natia Chkhetiani said that after the shooting started she saw some young people jumping into water to escape hail of bullets; she said she also wanted to jump into water, but changed her mind after seeing how one boy was hit by bullet after jumping into water. She said she was hiding from one place to another mainly , along the rocky shore of the island. Chkhetiani also said that after the police boats arrived, she and some others hiding with her were still afraid to come out of hiding as the attacker himself was in the police uniform.

The Georgian embassy in Denmark, which covers Norway, said it was in contact with the Norwegian police trying to find out the fate of another Georgian girl.

President Saakashvili said in a letter of condolence to Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, that "this terrible atrocity once again reminds us that terrorism remains one of the main common challenges of the world today".

"For its solution, we have to strengthen our common efforts in order to ensure peace and stability in the world", Saakashvili the letter says.

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