PARIS, July 27 (UPI) -- A French anti-racism group said the killings in Norway couldn't be limited to actions of one person but attributed to a toxic climate nurtured by extremists.
The Movement Against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples suggested there was a link between last Friday's slaughter of 76 people and the rise "of populist and extreme right parties" and the "deleterious climate that [weighs] on the whole of Europe," The Irish Times reported Wednesday.
Anders Behring Breivik, 32, has admitted to making and detonating a bomb in downtown Oslo Friday that killed at least eight people then shooting and killing at least 68 people attending a political youth retreat on nearby Utoya Island.
France's extreme right National Front ripped MRAP, accusing the group of "taking advantage of a terrible, painful event to attempt to create confusion" and threatened to take legal action.
"The National Front of course has nothing to do to the Norwegian slaughter, which is the work of a lone lunatic who must be ruthlessly punished," National Front leader Marine Le Pen said in a statement.
While Norwegian investigators have not found any ties between Friday's killings and any groups in France, police in Paris say several hundred individuals known for their extreme-right views are under watch by the country's security services.
"It's certain that the Norwegian case will lead Paris to tighten the net around these fringe people," an Interior Ministry senior official told Le Figaro.
