FINLAND: At least 23 people, mainly youths, were killed and 15 injured yesterday in Finland's worst traffic accident after their bus collided with a truck on an icy road.
The accident happened in the early hours of the morning near Konginkangas, a town some 300km north of Helsinki, when a truck carrying industrial paper reels swayed and slammed into the oncoming bus.
Police said some of the reels, weighing two to three tonnes each, flew into the bus, which was carrying around 40 youths, some as young as 12, on a ski trip to northern Finland from the cities of Helsinki and Tampere.
Police said the bus-driver was most probably killed, but the truck-driver was taken to hospital in a state of shock. The cause of the collision is still unknown and Finland's Accident Investigation Board has now taken over the inquiry . - (Reuters)