Stian feels his pulse beat. “Must find a hiding place”. “Must find a hiding place”. That’s the only thing the head can think. He has to tell those closest to him that he is ok. He has to tell them that he has survived a terrorist attack in Norway. Yet again. For the second time in his life, he now stands and feels clammy fingers trying to formulate a few words on the phone’s keyboard. He writes: For the second time in his life he has just run from a terrorist. The time is 17:17, 22 July 2011 Anders Behring Breivik has just landed on Utøya dressed as a policeman. At the same time, Stian sits and chats with a good friend in the dining room. On Utøya, he is a veteran to be reckoned with. This is his eighth year at AUF’s summer camp. MEMORIES: Stian together with former Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg on Utøya in 2009. Photo: Privat Four minutes after Breivik lands, the first shots are fired. Stian hears bangs and someone shouting “doll”. Utøya leader Monica Bøsei and policeman Trond Berntsen are the first to be shot. They are shot at close range. Stian takes off into the forest in the hope of finding a place to hide far away from the bullets. “I thought, ‘Am I going to survive this?’. – Stian Løken – The feeling that I might die in the next half hour, it’s very strange. Then time passes slowly. It takes about 70 minutes before Breivik is taken by the police. Stian saved his life by hiding, but 69 people were killed. 33 of them were under 18, and the two youngest were only 14. It is 1:12 a.m. on June 25. 2022 Zaniar Matapour has just got off the tram outside the Courthouse in Oslo. Wearing a yellow T-shirt and carrying a bag, he crosses the street and heads towards the bar Per på Hjørnet. At the same time, nearby, Stian is standing at the bar inside the London pub. He has just ordered himself a drink. Around him, happy people are dancing who are enjoying life this night before the Pride Parade. A few seconds after Matapour gets off the tram, shots are heard. A lot of people come running towards Stian, who is now standing with some friends. “I recognize the fear in the looks. – Stian Løken – It’s about the fear of death that some of them have. I’ve seen that before. Then I thought; no, not now again. This time, too, he finds a place to hide. The bushes on Utøya have now been replaced by concrete walls that surround the emergency exit he has found. Jon Erik Isachsen and Kåre Arvid Hesvik lost their lives in what PST will later refer to as an extreme Islamist terrorist act. – Both times I have been very lucky. I survived, I came out of it physically unharmed and I didn’t see the worst gunshot wounds. “On Utøya, I saw that people had been shot, and I saw that people were dead – but I did not see anyone being shot. I think it would have been worse. – Stian Løken The 22 July support group has believed in the aftermath of Norway’s biggest terrorist attack that the follow-up of those affected has been too poor. Now, after the Oslo shooting, they are afraid that this will happen again. For Stian, the follow-up after Utøya has been important. He believes that the challenges are that there are not good enough registers to pick up those who may need help. “The long-term follow-up is the important one. – Stian Løken Photo: Audun Braastad / NTB scanpix – There can be late damage from this, and it is particularly important for the municipality to keep an eye on it. Over the autumn, after the terrorist attack on Utøya, Stian had problems with his concentration for a longer period. He slept little, and when he did close his eyes he often had nightmares. The nightmares were always about him being chased. And a desperate struggle to find a place to hide. “But it was just a nightmare,” he could reassure himself. – Because I didn’t think I would experience it again.
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Stian (31) ran from the bullets twice – Norway
