A student working in Norway at the time of the bombing and shootings has told how the country has come together with love instead of hate.

Theresa Doksheim, a second-year Kingston University journalism student, was on work experience at the Tonsbergs newspaper, one hour south of Oslo, when she heard about the bomb on Friday, July 22.

After finding out her brother, who worked two streets away from the blast, had left a few minutes earlier, she said the phones at the newspaper just kept ringing.

She said going to bed thinking 10 youngsters had then been killed on Utoya island was bad, but waking up to hear the number was “at least 80” was completely devastating.

She said: “Since Friday, I have had to face some of the hardest assignments yet.

“I’ve talked to teenagers who are missing their best friends, and I’ve talked to the people in my town who are all so shocked and devastated that this could happen in our safe, little Norway.

“I just heard from a friend whose brother was supposed to be at Utoya that day, but he couldn’t as he had to be at work. He’s now lost 15 of his friends, five of them his closest friends. I can’t imagine being in that situation.”

The 21-year-old, who did work experience at the Surrey Comet in January, attended a mass vigil in Oslo on Monday.

She said: “As I stood with 200,000 people with roses, I realised how bravely the Norwegians have responded to a sad, cold man’s actions.

“We have just come together so much closer, and we are not focusing on his bad actions, but on how we can support the ones who have lost or are missing someone after these terrible events.

“Standing there, in the middle of so many people, so many roses, and so much love, was unbelievable. It was so sad, but so good to feel how we’re all in this together.”