A truck has caught fire in Norway’s second-longest tunnel, leading to the evacuation of 160 people – 55 of whom were hospitalised due to smoke inhalation and other injuries.
The truck caught fire 3.5 kilometres into the tunnel, Gudvangatunnelen, in a district east of Bergen on Monday, police spokesman Jorn Lasse Refnes said.
Gudvangatunnelen is 11.4 kilometres long and is in the western part of Norway.
Rescue services spokesman Reinardt Sorensen said the light went out in the tunnel after the fire.
Most of the injured suffered from smoke inhalation, but some people were lightly hurt after they crashed their cars in the darkness, he said.
The 160 people evacuated from the tunnel included the truck driver, who walked away uninjured, Sorensen said. He added that it wasn’t yet clear what caused the fire, which was extinguished.
