The father of the young man suspected of single-handedly killing 93 people in Norway's worst post-war tragedy has told of his shock as he came across his son's picture on the Internet.
Retired diplomat Jens Breivik described his son Anders
Behring Breivik, who he said he has not seen since he was 15 or 16, as an
"ordinary boy."
"I was reading the news on the Internet and suddenly
I saw his name and picture," Breivik senior told Norway's Verdens Gang
newspaper.
"I am in a state of shock, it's absolutely horrific
to hear that," added Breivik, who is divorced from the suspect's mother
and currently lives in the south of France.
"We never lived together but we had some contact
during his childhood," he said.
"When he was younger, he was an ordinary boy but not
very communicative. He was not interested in politics at the time."
His wife Wanda spoke briefly outside the couple's villa
in Cournanel near Limoux, southern France, on Sunday where dozens of
journalists gathered outside the gates.
"We've had a horrible night. I haven't slept. My
husband left this morning for Spain," she said tearfully in what turned
out to be a red herring.
The public prosecutor in the nearby town of Carcassonne
said later police had been deployed outside the house in which both Jens
Breivik and his wife were currently staying for their safety.
Questioned by AFP whether the police presence was part of
the investigation or following a request by Norwegian authorities to question
Jens Breivik prosecutor Antoine Leroy said police officers were meant to
"avert any incident or disturbance, which is normal and legitimate".
Wanda Breivik said she had never met her hudband's son,
according to a Norwegian television reporter's translation.
Anders Behring Breivik, 32, was arrested following the
twin attacks which left 93 people dead on Friday and sent shockwaves through
the usually peaceful country.
The suspect confirmed having set the car bomb that killed
seven in Oslo's government quarters and gone on a shooting spree during a
Labour Party summer camp on a nearby island that claimed 86 lives.
Behring Breivik, who described in a manifesto released on
the Internet how he had planned the attacks over years, told police he acted
alone in what would be one of the worst acts of violence by a single man in
recent memory.
The suspect mentions his father in the tract, who he says
was a diplomat posted to London and Paris and who remarried after his birth,
while his mother married a soldier who became his stepfather.
He wrote that his biological father and his wife had
asked for custody of the boy but were prevented by the Norwegian courts.
"I had a good relationship with him and his new wife
... until I was 15.
"I still have contact with (her) until this day but
have not spoken to my father since he isolated himself when I was 15 (he wasn't
very happy about my graffiti phase from 13-16...".
In the manifesto he said his biological parents were both
Labour Party supporters.
Shocked residents of the quiet village of Cournanel, home
to around 650 inhabitants, said they did not know Jens Breivik or his son.
French police were now guarding the couple's villa, but
locals said they had only recently moved to the house.