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Jens Breivik, who is in his 70s and living in rural France, was preparing to travel to Norway, where he will be will be met by police.

"I view this atrocity with absolute horror,' said Mr Breivik, a retired diplomat who worked at the Norwegian embassies in both London and Paris. "My condolences go out to all those who have suffered because of this. I am in a state of shock and have not recovered."

Mr Breivik has been estranged from his son for at least 16 years, and only learnt about the killings when he was browsing the news online.

"When he realised his son was involved he froze and could barely speak," said another family member in France. "He will never come to terms with something like this."

Mr Breivik had three children from a previous marriage - Erik, Jan and Nina - when he met Anders's mother, Wenche Behring, who had a daughter from a previous relationship.

Mr Beivik divorced Wenche when Anders was just one, and went on to marry Tove Vermo, another embassy worker.

Anders became the subject of a custody battle, as Mr Beivik and his new wife wanted to raise him in Paris, but they lost their case.

As a child, Anders used to visit his father at his flat in Paris, and at a holiday home in Normandy, western France.

They fell out because of Anders's increasingly unruly behaviour as a teenager.

Mr Breivik, a past supporter of the Norwegian Labour Party, was a commercial advisor for the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, attached to the embassies in London and Paris.