Man’s body lay in Norway flat for 9 years and nobody noticed

Police in Norway have asked how a man’s body could have lain in his flat for nine years or more after he 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 to carry out maintenance work.

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

Oslo police inspector Grete Lien Metlid told NRK: “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 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, he was obviously a person who has chosen to have little contact with others,” Lien Metlid told NRK.

According to one neighbour, he was not interested in talking to anyone.

Many in Norway say the case 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. Nowadays, if something strange happens, it’s possible nobody will notice.”