Six Swiss nationals die in road crash in Sweden

STOCKHOLM: Six Swiss nationals were killed in a road accident in Sweden’s far north when the minibus they were in collided with a truck, Swedish police and Swiss officials said on Sunday.

The cause of the accident, which occurred in the early hours of Saturday near the town of Kiruna, was not yet known, Swedish police said.

Switzerland’s foreign ministry confirmed the six dead were Swiss nationals, and that a seventh Swiss person in the minibus was injured.

All of them were born in the 1990s, Swedish police said.

According to Swedish media reports, the minibus crossed over into oncoming traffic in a curve and collided head-on with a heavy truck carrying a load of iron ore.

The truck driver was not injured. The Kiruna region in the Arctic Circle, which lies some 1,200 kilometres north of Stockholm, is popular with tourists seeking out pristine wilderness, the Northern Lights, and a nearby ice hotel. — AFP