“The woman was extremely lucky. He threw the axe full force, with both hands from six meters away and hit her on the back of the head. If it had rotated half a turn it would have connected with the sharp edge,” Värmland police duty officer Christer Magnusson told news agency TT.

Police describe the incident as entirely coincidental. The couple were driving through Töcksfors in Värmland when a car approached from behind and tried to overtake them on the inside. Instead of passing them, it drove straight into a lamppost.

The couple stopped and a man rushed out from the crashed car, opened the door of their vehicle, and began to attack the driver. The Norwegian woman fled her vehicle and was chased into a nearby candy store, where one of the attackers threw an axe at her.

Her husband subsequently ran into the store and was threatened with a knife several times.

The three attackers, two men and a woman, then took took the Norwegian couple’s car and disappeared from the scene in the direction of Norway. The couple escaped without any serious injuries.

“They (the attackers) never drove over the border. Norwegian customs claim they didn’t cross the border, so we’re looking for them,” duty officer Magnusson explained on Tuesday morning.

Later in the afternoon police confirmed that they had arrested two people and were still looking for the third.