The true story behind Netflix's latest crime thriller that still haunts the world.

On July 22, 2011, 77 Norwegians were killed in cold blood.

They were victims of the country’s most fatal terrorist attack and the worst act of violence in the Nordic country since the Second World War.

On that day, a far-right extremist named Anders Behring Breivik set a diabolical plan in motion.

Police believe he had planned his actions years in advance.

First, he sent out a electronic version of his 1500-page manifesto titled 2083: A European Declaration of Independence, which described his militant ideology.

In it he described his hatred of Islam. He also blamed feminism for creating what he called Europe’s “cultural suicide”.

He then detonated a fertiliser bomb outside the tower block, which housed the office of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, in central Oslo.

Eight people were killed in the attack. Hundreds of others were left injured by the blast.

Breivik then travelled to Utoya island via a ferry, where the country’s Worker’s Youth League was holding a camp.

Dressed as a police officer, Breivik told the campers he was there to help them.

He then opened fire, and over the period of an hour, killed 69 people.

His youngest victim was just 14 years old.

Lisa Marie Husby was on the island that night; she was just 17 years old. She told the BBC at first she thought she was hearing fireworks or some kind of cruel joke.

Then she realised what she was hearing was someone shooting at her friends.

“At this point there was so many gunshots because of the automatic gun he was using, so we thought there was more than one shooter,” she told the BBC.

“We just hid under beds and tried to get into the small rooms inside the cabin and shelter ourselves from what was going on outside. We could hear the gunshots getting closer and further away and then suddenly they were very close.”

Husby and her friends spent a terrifying four hours hiding in that cabin. It’s a traumatic experience that they’ll never be able to forget.

When Norway’s counter-terrorism unit surrounded him, Breivik surrendered without putting up a fight.

He later confessed to everything. He told investigators he murdered 77 people to save Norway and Western Europe from a Muslim takeover.

A court-appointed forensic psychiatrist would later diagnose the mass murderer with Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

At his court case he pleaded not guilty, despite already confessing to the crimes. He also stated in court that he wished he had killed even more people on the day.

He was found guilty of the murder of the 77 victims and sentenced to 21 years in jail, the maximum penalty in Norway.

His sentence means he will spend at least 10 years in jail and his time behind bars could be extended indefinitely. Under Norwegian law, if a person is considered a threat to society, then they will never be released back into the world.

Although Breivik is locked away, the bloodshed and terror they endured on July 22, 2011, continues to haunt the Norwegian people.

22 July will be available to stream on Netflix tomorrow. 

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