Up to 150,000 mourners honour terror victims in Oslo

AFP - Up to 150,000 Norwegians poured onto Oslo's streets Monday, raising a sea of flower-bearing hands into the air in memory of the 76 victims of last week's twin bombing and shooting attacks.

NORWAY TERROR ATTACKS FRANCE 24 Markus Karlsson reports from Oslo as Norway mourns its victims.

Norwegian television showed images of similar gatherings taking place in other cities across the country after a call for people to show solidarity with those killed in Friday's bombing and mass shootings.

"Tonight the streets are filled with love," Crown Prince Haakon told the vast crowd massed on the banks of the Norwegian capital's fjord after Friday's car bombing of ministries and mass shooting of Labour Party youths on Utoeya island.

"Those who were in the government district and on Utoeya were targets for terror. But it has affected us all," he said to applause.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg then addressed the crowd, saying: "Evil can kill a person but it cannot kill a people."

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Central Oslo streets were closed to traffic because of the vigil, which had originally been planned as a "flower march" but it was decided that people should stay in one place because of the large numbers turning up.

A police spokeswoman told AFP that they would not give an official estimate for the turnout but described the gathering as "gigantic."

A policeman on the scene said he thought there were 100,000 people present, while Norwegian media put the figure at 150,000.

The largely youthful crowd repeatedly raised their flower-bearing hands in the air, while a singer sang the Norwegian anti-Nazi hymn "For Youth" at the end of a short commemorative concert.