A lesbian couple who live on an island neighbouring the one where Norwegian gunman Anders Behring Breivik massacred dozens of students on Friday saved around forty people by picking them up in their boat.

Hege Dalen and her partner Toril Hanse made four trips back and forth in their small boat, picking up injured, bloodied and scared young people.

They say they heard gunshots and screaming, so rushed over to assist.

“Dalen and Hansen drove their boat to the island, and fished out of the water people who were in shock and young people who were injured and transported them ashore,” reports local media, translated by The People’s Forum. “Every now and then bullets almost hit the boat.

“Since they couldn’t fit everyone into the boat all at once, they returned to the island four times. They might have saved as much as forty people from the clutches of the killer.”

As an estimated 100,000 people gathered yesterday in Norway’s capital Oslo to remember those slain, local police now say 76 people are confirmed dead from the attacks, revised from an earlier estimate of 93.