Headlines
President Mukherjee safe in Sweden after convoy involved in crash
Stockholm/New Delhi, June 3
President Pranab
Mukherjee and the Crown Prince and Princess of Sweden have escaped
unharmed following a 15-car pile-up involving their motorcade in the
Swedish town of Uppsala, Swedish media reports said.
Rashtrapati Bhavan termed the reports "misleading" and said no one was hurt.
In
a tweet, the official @RashtrapatiBhvn handle posted: "Reports about
accident involving convoy of #PresidentMukherjee misleading. Minor
incident, nobody hurt, Prez and team on schedule to Minsk."
According
to Swedish English language daily thelocal.se, President Mukherjee,
Crown Princess Victoria and her husband Prince Daniel were travelling
through Uppsala university city when they were involved in the crash on
Monday evening. But nine people they were travelling with were taken to
hospital.
Four cars in the Indian president's convoy are
understood to have crashed as they approached a roundabout in the
university city of Uppsala, the daily said.
Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel were also making the journey but escaped unhurt, according to the Swedish Royal Court.
But several others were taken to hospital following the accident, which took place just after 4.30 p.m.
The number of people injured was originally reported as six, but police later amended the figure to nine.
"I
have information saying nine people. Two of them are supposed to have
been put in an ambulance, the rest were taken to hospital in police
cars.
"No one is seriously injured. But this information could
change," Christer Nordstrom, press officer at Uppsala police, told
Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet.
Mukherjee was due to give a speech at the Uppsala University as part of a three-day visit to the Nordic nation.
He continued his journey to the Swedish institution, where he was joined by the royal couple, the report said.
President Mukherjee is the first Indian head of state in history to visit Sweden.
He
arrived over the weekend at the invitation of King Carl XVI Gustaf and
was welcomed at Stockholm's Arlanda Airport by Crown Princess Victoria
and Prince Daniel before being given a ride in a horse-drawn cortege
through the streets of the Swedish capital.
He has also held meetings with business leaders and the Swedish Prime Minister, Stefan LAfven.
A
spokeswoman for the Swedish royal court told IBTimes UK that 15
vehicles including cars in the motorcade were involved in the accident
on June 1.
She explained members of the Swedish royal staff and
Indian presidential staff were injured but the cars of the dignitaries
themselves had not been involved.
In an official statement, a
spokesman for the Upsala University Hospital, where the injured
individuals were received, said: "It was a traffic accident with a
number of patients, all of whom sustained minor injuries."
The hospital declined to comment further on the incident.
Upsala
police press officer Tommy Karlsson was quoted by Sweden's TT news
agency as saying: "The president was not injured but I have no
information on which people were."