Three killed as Stockholm bus slams into pedestrians

A bus rammed into a bus stop queue during Stockholm’s afternoon rush hour Friday, killing three people and injuring three others, police said.

The driver had been arrested and a manslaughter investigation opened, according to police. But they gave no other details of the traumatic incident in the Ostermalm district of the Swedish capital.

Shortly after the crash, a swarm of police officers, ambulances and emergency vehicles descended on the scene. Media images showed rescue crews crouched under the double-decker bus, appearing to help people trapped underneath.

“The investigation will have to determine what happened. It’s too early to say and I don’t want to speculate,” police spokesperson Nadya Norton told AFP.

She said a manslaughter investigation had been opened and the driver arrested as a matter of routine. Swedish media reported that the incident appeared to have been an accident.

“We need to question him, then we’ll see if he’s going to be released or detained,” Norton said.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said his thoughts were with the victims and their families.

“I have received the tragic news that several people have died and been injured at a bus stop in central Stockholm,” he wrote on X.

“People who might have been on their way home to family, friends, or a quiet evening at home. We do not yet know the cause, but right now my thoughts are primarily with those affected and their loved ones,” he said.

– ‘Chaos’ –

A woman identified as Michelle MacKey, a nurse, told the Expressen daily she stepped off another bus at the scene just after the accident happened.

“I crossed the road and saw the double-decker bus that had mowed down an entire bus stop queue,” she said.

She said she saw injured and dead people lying on the ground, with many screaming while others tried to help.

“There must have been more people under the bus,” she said. “I thought it was an exercise at first. That maybe they were dolls. It was so unreal. Chaos.”

The busy Valhallavagen avenue, where the deaths occured, was reopened on Friday evening.

Police technicians were working at the scene but emergency vehicles had left.