One person died and another was left critically injured after two cars collided head-on inside the Bømlafjord undersea tunnel on Norway's E39 highway in Sveio, Vestland county, police reported Monday.
Five people were involved in the crash, which occurred on the Haugesund side of the tunnel. Four occupants of one vehicle managed to exit on their own, while a person in the second car was trapped and had to be freed by emergency crews. A woman in her 70s was killed, and a critically injured person was transported to Haukeland University Hospital, while three others were taken to a trauma centre in Haugesund. Police said their working hypothesis is that one vehicle crossed into the oncoming lane.
The tunnel, which runs beneath the fjord between Sveio and Føyno in Sunnhordland, was temporarily closed before reopening later Monday.