A bus crash has killed at least three people in Norway, it has been reported.
The accident happened around 1:30 pm local time today when the bus came off the road and ended up partially in the Åsvatnet lake, according to public broadcaster NRK.
The bus was thought to be carrying 58 people at the time in the Hadsel district on the country’s north-western coast.
Writing on social media, The Norwegian Red Cross said it was sending teams to help with a ‘serious bus accident’ on the E10 road.
Heavy snowdrifts and high winds were reported in the area before the crash.
Bent Are Eilertsen from Nordland Police said many of the passengers are foreign nationals, according to local reports.
Martin Reberg, general manager of Boreal Buss AS – a Norwegian bus company – said the crash involved one of their vehicles while it was on a trip from Narvik to Lofoten, VG reports.
Rescue leader Ørjan Delbekk told VG the bus is partially underwater and the extent of the damage is not yet clear.
He said a large rescue operation is underway.
Randi Angelsen, Nordland’s communications manager, told VG: ‘Additional resources including personnel, ambulances, helicopters and aircraft resources have been called in to transport injured people to the hospital.’
Martin Reberg, general manager of Boreal Buss AS, said: ‘This is a serious incident, and we have set up a crisis team in Boreal.
‘We are cooperating with the emergency services and of course assisting with all the resources we can.’
A local resident said: ‘There were a lot of emergency services, panic and chaos at the scene.
‘It looked like they were in control. The helicopter landed just as we were there.’
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