Two Finns killed in accident on Sweden's highest peak (Roundup)

Jul 27, 2010, 15:49 GMT

Stockholm - Two people were killed Tuesday by falling rocks while climbing on Sweden's highest mountain, Kebnekaise, police said.

The two Finnish nationals, a man and woman in their 20s, were part of a five-strong group that were scaling a cliff face when they were hit by boulders and rocks, a police spokesman told the German Press Agency dpa.

None of the other members of the group were hurt. The group alerted police via a satellite telephone as mobile telephone services are patchy in the area.

The group had begun their climb near a large glacier on the eastern side of the mountain. The glacier is at an altitude of some 1,700 metres.

Weather conditions and visibility were described as poor. A helicopter and a mountain rescue team were dispatched to the scene.

Last month another climber died after falling several hundred metres while climbing the mountain.

Kebnekaise, located about 150 kilometres above the Arctic Circle, has two peaks. The highest is covered by a glacier and therefore varies slightly in height year by year. It measured 2,106 metres in 2009, according to the Swedish land survey and mapping authority.