At least 100,000 join Oslo march in grief and unity

OSLO: At least 100,000 people rallied in Oslo and tens of thousands more marched in cities across Norway on Monday in a nationwide expression of grief and unity over the massacre of 76 people by Anders Behring Breivik.

Breivik told a judge in a closed hearing on Monday his bombing and shooting rampage aimed to save Europe from a Muslim takeover, and said that "two more cells" existed in his group.

Police said they could not rule out the possibility that others were involved in Friday's attacks and they revised down the death toll to 76 from 93: eight dead in a bomb blast in Oslo and 68 at a Labour Party youth camp on Utoeya island.

Stoltenberg addressed the evening crowd, many of them holding up red and white roses for remembrance, his voice trembling with emotion: "By taking part you are saying a resounding 'yes' to democracy." He called the Rose March a "march for democracy, a march for tolerance, a march for unity".

"Evil can kill a person but never conquer a people."

In a country of 4.8 million, where a single murder makes front-page news, the solidarity rally was probably the biggest since World War Two.

"We are a small society and I think that makes everyone feel affected whether directly involved or not," said Jonas Waerstad, 26, who was one of the marchers.

Earlier in the day, a handful of enraged protesters awaited Breivik at Oslo District Court.

"Get out, get out!" shouted one, banging on a police car he wrongly believed contained the self-confessed mass killer. In fact police drove Breivik to the court in another vehicle.

"Everyone here wants him dead," he said, adding that he knew one of the dead and three survivors of the attacks.

"We want to see him really hurt for what he did," said Zezo Hasab, 32, among the jeering protesters outside the court.

Breivik had wanted to explain in public why he perpetrated modern-day Norway's worst peacetime massacre. He was denied a public platform, but judge Kim Heger in his news conference, gave an account of what the accused 32-year-old had said.

After the hearing, a police jeep drove away carrying an unshaven Breivik, with close-cropped blond hair and wearing a red jumper with a lighter red shirt underneath. (Reuters)