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A nation in mourning ... young people grieve Norway's deadliest postwar tragedy.Credit:AP

In his late teens,he completed compulsory national service,where he received military training and learnt how to shoot.

A keen hunter,his only brush with the law appears to have been a minor traffic infringement around 10 years ago - about the same time at which friends claim he became increasingly enamoured with right-wing politics.

Rampage ... Anders Behring Breivik in costumes.Credit:Reuters

By 20,Breivik became a member of Fremskrittspartiet (The Progress Party),Norway's largest far-right group,and became chairman of his local party. His association with the party ceased in 2007,when he failed to pay his membership fees.

By this stage his political views became increasingly radical. The object of his hatred were Muslims,whom he believed were destroying Norwegian society.

A politician who met Breivik when he was apparently interested in local Oslo politics,said he did not attract attention.''I got the impression that he was a modest person … he was well dressed,''recalled Joeran Kallmyr,a local Oslo politician representing the Progressive Party.''It seemed like he was well educated.''

Outside politics,Brevik is a keen bodybuilder and member of an Oslo gun club,holding licences for a rifle,shotgun and a Glock semi-automatic pistol.

Breivik was a fan of online gaming and on the European World of Warcraft forums,players came together to try to make sense of Breivik's alleged involvement in the killings.

''This is just not happening,''a player called Piltavla wrote.''You had this image of him never being able to harm a fly … he was a very calm and down-to-earth person. I spent many nights speaking with him … It's unbelievable that he's done this. I feel sick that I ever knew him (to be honest)!''

Government records suggest that despite his management qualifications,his early attempts at business were a failure until he established Breivik Geofarm in eastern Norway for the cultivation of''vegetables,melons and tubers''. The business would have given Breivik access to nitrogen-based fertiliser - one of the main ingredients of a''fertiliser bomb''.

Telegraph,London