Today in Sweden: A roundup of the latest news on Monday

Warning of wildfires after blazes break out in northern Sweden

Firefighters in the northern Swedish Västernorrland region are battling a spate of forest fires after a thunderstorm swept in across the region. Around 2,600 square metres of forest was on fire at Västhällberget in the Sundsvall municipality in the early hours of Monday, and 1,000 square metres at Sandsjöberget in Ånge – the two largest of four wildfire incidents last night, reports the TT newswire.

National weather agency SMHI has issued warnings of the risk of forest fires in almost all of Sweden, after a long period of dry and warm weather.

Swedish vocabulary: thunderstorm – åskoväder

Woman dies in car crash south of Stockholm

A young woman died near Södertälje in central Sweden, after a car with a driver and four passengers crashed into a tree. All five, all young women, were taken to hospital by ambulance and ambulance helicopter. Three of them have serious injuries, writes TT.

The accident happened at around 8.40pm on Sunday, on road 522.

Swedish vocabulary: accident – olycka

Mystery flash lights up western Sweden – but it’s not such a mystery after all

The bright light that lit up the sky in western Sweden in the early hours of Saturday was most likely a bolide – a large meteor which usually burns up at an altitude of 30-50 kilometres, although this one may have made it as far down as 25-30 kilometres.

The fireball flashed across the sky in southern Norway and western Sweden at 1.08am on Sunday, followed by a loud bang. The latter may indicate that pieces of a meteorite may be left, although if so it is believed to have landed somewhere in Norway.

Last year a 14-kilo iron meteorite was found in the forests near Enköping, Sweden, after a bolide fell to earth.

Swedish vocabulary: sky – himmel

Swedish clinics let patients reject doctors based on ethnicity

Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) has investigated how medical clinics handle patients who ask not to be treated by a doctor with foreign background. The newspaper called 120 public and private health centres and dental clinics and pretended to be a patient who wanted an “ethnically Swedish” or “Swedish-Swedish” doctor. If asked whether they were concerned of a language barrier, they responded that ethnicity was the key thing.

A total of 51 of the clinics agreed to the fictional patient’s request, and 40 did not. Only a few clearly stated that they did not believe changing your doctor based on ethnicity was ok, writes DN. After being contacted a second time, this time openly by the journalist, many of the clinics who originally allowed the patients to choose their doctor based on ethnicity said that approving such requests was against their policy.

Swedish vocabulary: doctor – doktor/läkare