Freya the walrus immortalised in bronze statue in Oslo fjord

A bronze sculpture of a walrus named Freya who gained global attention last summer has been unveiled in Oslo.

She’d been playfully basking in Oslo fjord until officials decided to euthanise her.

Before then Freya had been spotted in the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden.

But city officials decided she had become too stressed and also posed a threat to humans, who came too close to the 600 kilogramme mammal to take pictures.

The decision sparked anger and became the motivation behind the statue. 

“First of all, I was very provoked by the way Freya was treated. And how her life ended,” Erik Holm, the concerned person who came up with the idea of placing a statue in the fjord, said.

“A lot of people did not comply with the rules and orders that were around dealing with Freya when she was on the dock there. People were a little too curious and were a little too close.”

Many people thought the decision to put her down was rushed – but officials said moving her to a less populated area would have been too complex an operation.