Landslides triggered by heavy rain hit Norway as hundreds are evacuated, with more showers expected

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Landslides triggered by heavy rain occurred overnight across mountainous southern Norway, with police saying Wednesday that more than 600 people were evacuated in the region north of Oslo.

“The situation is still unclear and chaotic,” police in southern Norway said after Storm Hans battered parts of Scandinavia and the Baltics for several days, causing rivers to overflow, damaging roads and injuring people with falling branches.

Thousands remained without electricity. In Estonia, approximately 5,000 households remained without power Tuesday.

More heavy rain was expected over southern Norway and central Sweden.

"It is exceptional to have such a low pressure as Hans which has brought so much rain for several days in a row,” Erik Hojgard-Olsen, a meteorologist with the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), was quoted as saying by the Aftonbladet newspaper. “Especially for being a summer month, it has lasted a long time.”

Large parts of the harbor in Goteborg — Sweden's second-largest city — was under water. On Wednesday, SHMI maintained its red-level warning for the west coast, saying “very large amounts of rain causing extremely high flows in streams” could be expected.

In Norway, the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate upgraded its warning for floods, landslides and landslides from orange to red for parts of southern Norway. The Norwegian Meteorological Institute issued its highest-level warning for extremely heavy rain.

“This is a very serious situation that can lead to extensive consequences and damage,” it said.

The agency under the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy said there were "record high flood levels in several places in the Drammensvassdraget — Norway's third largest drainage basin — west of Oslo, the capital.

“In many small watercourses the flood is receding, but may rise if there is more rain,” the agency said.