Blackburn Rovers star Morten Gamst Pedersen has called on his team-mates to wear black armbands in memory of the 93 people killed in his native Norway.

He has asked for the show of support for his shocked homeland when Rovers plays Aston Villa in Hong Kong tomorrow night.

The international midfielder has spoken of his anguish and he said he had been left angered by the ‘horrific’ attacks, but urged his fellow Norwegians to stand together.

Pedersen said: “I am in Hong Kong with Blackburn Rovers, but my heart is home in Norway.

“I will play with black bands on my arm in the next game to honour the victims, their families, and each and every other Norwegian.

“And I will ask my team mates to do the same.

“I read a very strong story of Prableen Kaur, one of the survivors of Utoya, and I’m sitting with a huge lump in my throat at the events she has gone through.

“The feeling that I have doesn’t get better as the days go by and we’re getting distance from the horrors. It’s quite the contrary, they are getting worse as the horrific scenes we are witnessing come through.

“Norway is a small country, and such events will affect everyone in one way or another way.

“But we will not let ourselves be broken by this, rather we will become strengthened.

“We are an open society that does not have armed guards and security controls everywhere, and we don’t want to have it.

“We will stand together and find comfort in each other and we will, as our Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said, ‘retaliate with even more democracy’.”

On Friday, 93 people were killed in a bombing in central Oslo and shootings on the island of Utoya.

Anders Behring Breivik has been charged with the attacks and appeared in court yesterday.

It was expected that Breivik would explain his actions in court yesterday, but a judge ordered the proceedings be held in private.

Norway international Pedersen added: “What can this man have to say of interest?

That person has no opinions, or information, of interest to the Norwegian people.

“Now we will heal our wounds and focus on our lives onwards, and it is important that we don’t let ourselves go in a bad circle of hate and anger. We must stand together to protect our nation and our way of living.”