"You do not get scared in such a situation, you just do what it takes," Marcel Gleffe said.

But the 32-year-old German roofer's actions of sailing towards Utoya island - as gunman Anders Behring Breivik was on his shooting spree - to try to rescue the youths who were trying to escape from him, has been hailed as nothing short of heroic.

Mr Gleffe and his parents had been drinking coffee at the Utvika camping ground - just 600 metres opposite Utoya island where a summer camp for youth members of Norway's ruling Labour Party was being held - when they heard a series of bangs.