A LIVERPOOL photography student has revealed his lucky escape after an impromptu assignment saw him leave Norway’s Utoya island 24 hours before its massacre.
Vegard Grott, 21, a journalism student at Liverpool John Moores University had been working as a freelance photographer on the tiny island in his native Norway the day before gunman Anders Breivik killed at least 68 people attending a political youth camp.
Vergard who is spending his summer working for the Scanpix picture agency in Oslo was covering a ministerial visit to the camp the previous day.
He was meant to return to Utoya on the day of the shootings but at the last minute was sent to cover a football match in mainland Kristiansand because another cameraman was sick.
And Vergard who remembers the camp’s youngsters enjoying a “fun kick around” as he left the island on Thursday said although his Friday shift at the camp was scheduled to finish “an hour or so before” Breivik opened fire: “You never know” and admitted “I feel extremely lucky.”