Youth camp reopens on Norwegian island 4 years after fanatic killed 69 in shooting rampage

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg takes part in a wreath laying at a memorial ceremony as Norway marked the fourth anniversary of the bombing and the shootings at the Labor Party youth camp on Utoeya island, which killed in total 77 people. (AP)

UTOYA, Norway – Four years after a right-wing extremist gunned down 69 people, Norway's idyllic island of Utoya is reopening to a flood of newcomers to the Labor Party's youth camp for the first time since the massacre in 2011.

Emilie Bersaas, a camp organizer, says they won't allow "that dark day (to) overshadow the nice and bright" memories of camps there.

More than 1,000 students have enrolled for the three-day weekend seminars on politics that open Friday. Private visitors a day earlier will include NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Norway's prime minister at the time of the massacre.

Self-styled "militant nationalist" Anders Behring Breivik walked through the island on a murderous rampage on July 22, 2011, after killing eight people with a car bomb at the government headquarters in the capital, Oslo.