This explainer will be updated as more news emerges.

The basics: A massive explosion hit Norway's government hub in central Oslo on Friday, mortally wounding at least two people and injuring at least 15 others. The six-story building that was targeted included the oil ministry and the office of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who was unharmed in the blast and is now operating out of an undisclosed location. Witness testimony and damage at the scene are consistent with reports of a car bombing. The New York Times reports:

Stunned office staff and civil servants working in the vicinity of the bombed building said two explosions could be heard in close succession. The sound of the blasts echoed across the city just before 3:30 p.m. local time. Giant clouds of light-colored smoke continued to rise hundreds of feet into the air over the city…

Photos and television footage showed windows blown out in the 17-story office building across the street from the oil ministry, and the street and plaza areas on each side were strewn with glass and debris.

A police spokesman has told Norwegian media that the police "still do not have full control of the situation," and are "still searching for other possible explosives." The first person on the scene "described it as 'worse than a war zone,'" says Joe Sivilli, who's talking to Mother Jones' Tim McDonnell from on the ground in Oslo. Sivilli, who speaks Norwegian fluently, works at a home-brewed beer shop a few blocks away from the site of the bombing. He says he felt a "rumble, like a small earthquake," when the bomb went off, but assumed it was just "construction or something like that." He'll be monitoring the Norwegian-language media for us as this story develops.

Wasn't there another attack? It's too early to tell for sure whether they're connected, but a gunman dressed as a policeman reportedly opened fire this afternoon at a Labour party youth camp near Utoya, Norway. Initial reports suggested that Stotltenberg was scheduled to be at the camp that day, but those are unconfirmed. Al Jazeera English has reported that someone has been arrested, and local media are reporting that several people have been killed, but those reports are also unconfirmed.

How is the government responding? Norway's governing party is the center-left Labour Party. The government has advised citizens to stay away from central Oslo tonight, and to stay at home and refrain from gathering in large groups.

Who's responsible? Why did they do it? Though no organization has claimed responsibility for the bombing, Islamist groups have targeted Norway before, reportedly due to the country's involvement in the NATO air war in Libya, the War in Afghanistan, the arrests of three men with possible ties to Al Qaeda in early July, and counter-terrorism measures. ABC News reports:

Intelligence sources are examining both Ansar al-Islam and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula for possible links to the attack.

Earlier this month, a Norwegian prosecutor filed terrorism charges against an Iraqi-born cleric who had allegedly threatened the lives of Norwegian politicians. Mullah Krekar, the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, said in a news conference in 2010 that if he was deported from Norway he would be killed and, therefore, Norwegian politicians deserved the same fate, according to an AP report. The Norwegian government had considered deporting Krekar because he was seen as a national security threat.

The Atlantic reported last year on Norway's troubles with other bomb plots and possible explanations as to why the Scandinavian country has been made a new target:

Why on Earth would Norway be a target for attack? The country is famed as an international peace negotiator, the home of the Nobel Peace Prize, and the distributor of more foreign aid per capita than any other country. It's an all-round international good guy…

Most likely, a combination of factors placed Norway on the jihadists' radar. In al-Qaeda's binary worldview, Norway is part of the "Jewish-Crusader alliance." Not a platinum member, perhaps, but a member nonetheless. If you're not with al-Qaeda, you're with the United States.

Norway has long been considered a legitimate but low-priority target. Frustrated by the difficulty of striking key adversaries like Britain and the United States, al-Qaeda seems to be moving down the food chain.

How can I follow developments in real-time? Use Twitter to follow #oslo. You should also follow @blakehounshell and @allthingsct. This post will be updated as more information becomes available. Other coverage of Friday's blast in Oslo can be found at The Guardian, BBC News, Al Jazeera English, The Daily Telegraph, and Talking Points Memo's Livewire.

Here's Al Jazeera's video report:



update: (from twitter) terror group, Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, issued a statement for the attack, according to Will McCants, a terrorism analyst at C.N.A

5:00 PM Eastern update: NRK, the Norwegian Broadcasting Station, has reported that "there are some people laying dead on the island, but they aren't getting them until a bomb squad has searched the island." Some witnesses who got away from Utoya told NRK reporters that the attacker there "had a Norwegian look," tall with blonde hair. The BBC reports that police in Oslo believe that the bomb attack was of foreign origin.

The AP reports that Norwegian police say the two events were definitely connected.

The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation reports that the first survivors from the Utoya shooting are leaving the island. And NRK now reports that ten of the victims of the Utoya attack are dead, according to police.

We're hearing Norwegian man(presumed) posing as a police officer is/was in a shoot out with the police on some island after the bombing where a youth group for one of the countrys political parties were having a conference so it's looking more like a homegrown thing rather than anything middle east/islamic extremist related.

check my last update.

about the shooting on the island, there are apparently teenagers floating off the coast. this sounds much worse than the bombing itself.

right..so whats the latest on the 'policeman' goin postal on the island?

can you find anything?

they're saying the person was dressed as a policeman, but not an actual officer.

"It is now clear that there is a connection between the explosions in the city center" and the shootings at a youth camp on the nearby island of Utoya, police tell Norway's NRK news.

some photos as they come out:

oslo:




the island:

yeah thats what i heard too...wtf is goin on up there??

BBC live stream: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14254705

shooter a white norwegian, it seems

i just updated the top post to say that he was "tall and blonde."

also that there are at least 10 people dead.

i guess the obvious: this is very sad

Is it pretty common to have political parties running youth camps?

Any word on what age this camp was? Still, that's not a practice seen in the US to my knowledge, at least in the form (full camp with sports etc) seen in Norway.

Norwegian journalists must be confused as hell trying to cover some real news in a long time.

I'm so awful, I lol'd

so the latest from Oslo:

Knowing Scandinavia, he's probably a right-winger.

confirmed 80 dead at the camp....

I believe the camp was associated with the Labour party. When I think political party associated camps, I think Putin's young russians or whatever they are called and Chavez' Bolivarian endeavors. In other words, political indoctrination that makes me wince.

In middle school, my sister had to do a travel brochure about a European country. She called it Doorway to Norway.