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OSLO, July 23, 2011 (AFP) - The gunman who rampaged through a youth camp on an idyllic Norwegian island spent more than two hours hunting down his terrified victims, according to survivors of the bloodbath.

When the first shots exploded at around 5:00 pm (1500 GMT), some 600 people, mostly teenagers and young adults, were on the island Utoeya near Oslo for a summer camp organised by the youth wing of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's ruling Labour party.

"We heard shots coming from the back," said 23-year-old Khamshajiny Gunaratnam, who survived the massacre by swimming to shore.

"We wondered who was fooling around ... I was sure it was some kind of joke," she wrote on her blog.

Clad in a jumper bearing a "police" insignia, the tall blond gunman, who police identified as a 32-year-old "ethnic" Norwegian and local media named as Anders Behring Breivik, gathered his victims saying he wanted to protect them.

A violent blast had rocked Oslo's government quarter earlier in the day, and the camp attendees had just come out of a briefing on the attack.

"'Come here, I have important information, come here, there is nothing to fear,'" the gunman said before opening fire, 15-year-old Elise told Norway's NTB news agency.

Craddled under a rock, the girl hid only steps from the killer, saying she could hear him breathe.

"People were running everywhere. He shot, and shot," she said.

The island paradise dotted with the camp participants' coloured tents quickly turned into "hell", said Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg of the place he had visited every summer since 1974.

Speaking to Australia's ABC network from hospital, 21-year-old Adrian Pracon, who was shot in the left shoulder, said the scene on the island looked like a "Nazi movie".

"He started shooting at these people, so I laid down and acted as if I was dead. He stood maybe two metres away from me. I could hear him breathing. I could feel the heat of the machine gun.

"He tried everyone, he kicked them to see if they were alive, or he just shot them."

In her blog post, Khamshajiny "Kamzy" Gunaratnam, 23, explained how she rushed through bushes and rocks along with her friends to escape the killer.

"We ran and ran. The worst thing was when we found out the shooter was dressed as a policeman. Who could we trust then? If we called the police, would he be the guy who would come to our 'rescue'?," she wrote.

"We still called the police," she said, adding, "but they took a damn long time."

It was only shortly after 7:00 pm that a Norwegian police commando reached the island by helicopter and arrested the suspect. The rampage left 85 people dead.

Kamzy explained how she was able with her friend Matti to swim towards the shore, more than 700 meters (765 yards) away despite the fact that the suspect shot at the swimmers. After a while, a boat picked them up and brought them to safety.

"I can't even shed a tear," Kamzy wrote. "I can't believe it. Today (Friday) I almost died."

"We don't deserve to die. And that's also why I'm writing this post. We are just ordinary young people. We are involved in politics. We want to make the world a better place," she wrote.