Norway: Bus carrying several tourists crashes, 3 killed

A bus crashed in poor weather conditions in northern Norway on Thursday, leading to three deaths and four serious injuries, police said. 

"Many of the passengers on the bus were foreign nationals," police said, with 58 people in total affected by the accident. 

Police said passengers from eight countries were on board: China, France, India, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway and South Sudan.

The crash took place near the Rafsundet strait on the E10, a major road which links the Lofoten archipelago, a popular tourist spot to observe the aurora borealis or "Northern Lights" in winter, to Norway's mainland.

Poor weather hampers rescue, missing data makes contacting relatives difficult

Images from the scene showed the bus had slid off the highway and down a slope towards a frozen lake, damaging the ice on top of it and leaving the bus partially submerged by the time rescuers tried to haul it back out.

Rescuers tried to pull the bus back out of the lake it had tumbled towards, cracking the layer ice on topImage: Marius Birkeland/AP Photo/picture alliance

"The weather conditions in the region are bad, complicating rescue operations," local police said in a statement. Strong winds are also accompanying the common heavy snows, according to the authorities.

Some of the evacuated passengers were taken to a local school, while three more seriously injured people were flown to a nearby hospital by helicopter.

"The priority now is to treat the injured, and an investigation will be launched to clarify what transpired," Norwegian news agency NTB cited Nordland police officer Bent Are Eilertsen as saying. 

He also said it was proving difficult to contact relatives because of the lack of a complete list of passengers and the number of nationalities involved. 

Norway's Red Cross said it was sending personnel to assist.

msh/jsi (AFP, dpa)