Families of Norway massacre victims return to island

Families of the 69 people killed on Utoeya island have returned to the scene of the tragedy to pay their respects.

Around 500 mourners visited the remote island where Anders Behring Breivik gunned down participants at a youth camp on July 22.

The group held flowers and candles as they toured the island in the rain and were shown the exact spot where their loved ones had died.

Psychologist Atle Dyregrov told Reuters news agency: “Going to the island helps them make sense of what happened, it helps to make it real, because up until then it can feel very unreal.

“Seeing the facts is often less scary than the fantasies they have. The fantasy can eat you inside – it helps to see what it looks like.”

Today, survivors of the massacre visited the island accompanied by police and psychiatrists.

Breivik has admitted to the killings and has been ordered to remain in solitary confinement as police continue their investigation into the Utoeya massacre and a bomb attack also carried out by Breivik on a government building in the capital, Oslo.

A month of mourning will culminate in a memorial service to be held in Oslo's Spektrum on Sunday.