Sweden snowstorm sparks mass pile-ups involving dozens of cars

A man cleans off the snow from his car after a snowfall on January 4, 2024 in Sundbyberg, near Stockholm. Cold temperatures as low as -44,6°C measured today next to the Finnish border at the Karesuando weather station located in Sweden’s Lapland. Agence France-Presse

STOCKHOLM — An intense snowstorm in eastern Sweden on Saturday sparked two massive road accidents involving dozens of vehicles and leaving more than 100 people needing hospital treatment, officials said.

Local media outlets carried footage showing dozens of cars and trucks rammed into each other, many of them largely destroyed, all of them covered in snow.

The country’s emergency information authority briefly warned that the accidents were “creating a major strain on the healthcare system” in the Uppsala region, and the local government announced emergency measures.

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By the evening, the hospitals had begun to get the situation back under control, regional health official Mikael Kohler told AFP.

“A total of 106 people have been taken to hospital for treatment following the accident on the E18,” he said, referring to the road where officials said some 95 vehicles had collided.

Two of the injured were held in intensive care on Saturday evening, Kohler said.

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A police spokesperson told public broadcaster SVT it was reminiscent of “a dystopian film scene”.

The Swedish Transport Administration urged road users not to go out on the roads in Uppsala County on their webpage.