“They hit a truck, which went onto the wrong side of the road and crashed into their minibus,” confirmed Camilla Åkesson Lindblom of the foreign ministry to news agency TT.

The accident reportedly occurred when the two men and two women, all in their early twenties, where en route between Patong in Phuket and Koh Tao, according to the police.

The young adults had arrived in Thailand on January 19th and had planned to stay in the country for three weeks.

The group’s Thai driver is also said to have died in the accident, which has been described as severe. According to daily Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) it took emergency services three hours to recover the bodies from the wrecked vehicle.

Thai media reported that the van driver fled the scene straight after the crash and is being sought by local police.

The Swedes and their driver are said to have died immediately in the massive collision, which occurred about 7am local time on Wednesday.

The young adults all came from Varberg, in southern Sweden, and the municipality on Wednesday afternoon mobilized its crisis response and grief counseling teams to deal with the reactions of those affected by the tragedy.

“We have made the judgement that this might be necessary at this stage,” said Anneli Westling of the municipality support group to TT.