Norway death: Police ask how Oslo man's body lay in flat for nine years

The man died in his flat in Oslo in 2011, police say

Police in Norway have asked how a man's body could have lain in his flat for nine years after he is believed to have died.

The man had been in his 60s and no-one reported him missing, police told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

Police found the body in December last year in an apartment block in the capital, Oslo.

According to NRK, the body was found when a caretaker needed to enter the apartment for maintenance work.

Police say milk cartons and letters in the home suggested that the man had died in April 2011.

'A special case'

Oslo police inspector Grete Lien Metlid told NRK: "We have thought a lot about it, my colleagues and people who have worked with this for many years.

"This is a special case, and it makes us ask questions about how it could happen."

An autopsy showed the man had died from natural causes.

The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) stopped sending his pension in 2018 when they could not contact him, the report says.

Not much is known about the man, but according to NRK he had been married a number of times and had children.

"Based on the picture we have, it is obviously a person who has chosen to have little contact with others," Ms Lien Metlid told NRK.

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He was not interested in talking to anyone, according to one neighbour.

Some in Norway say the case also highlights how technology is changing society.

"All his expenses were paid automatically from his bank account, everything was automatic," said Prof Arne Krokan at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

"That's something that would not have happened in the past. So if something strange happens, it's possible nobody will notice."