2 dead, several injured after 2 buses collide in Norway

OSLO (AFP) - Two people were killed and several seriously injured on Monday when two buses, one Norwegian and one Swedish with foreign tourists aboard, collided in western Norway, the local authorities said.

The frontal collision took place late on Monday afternoon as the two buses travelled on a road connecting the towns of Sogndal and Lekanger, the head of the local police's operations Hans Petter Harlem said.

Sogndal Mayor Jarle Aarvoll told news channel TV2 Nyhetskanalen that two people were killed and several were seriously injured.

According to the police, a total of some 30 passengers were on board the two buses. The nationalities of the passengers were not immediately known.

Mr Aarvoll said some of them were Chinese, while the police said some were Taiwanese.

Photos from the scene published by Norwegian media showed the front end of the Swedish bus was completely demolished, the windshield shattered and several windows blown out.

With its fjords, western Norway is highly popular with tourists in the summer.

Last week in the same region, a Polish lorry caught fire in the country's second-longest tunnel, sending 73 people to hospital for smoke inhalation, including Chinese, French and German tourists.

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