The bus drove straight into a bus shelter on Valhallavägen, the tree-filled avenue that cuts through the upmarket district, just outside the KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
A large area between the bus stop and the metro station has been cordoned off by police, and the SL bus lines 4, 6, 67 and 72 have been affected by the accident.
The alarm came in at just before 3.30pm on Friday.
Stockholm police confirmed in a statement on its website at 8.20pm that three people had been killed and three injured, of whom two had to be taken to hospital in an ambulance.
Nadya Norton, a spokesperson for the Stockholm police told the Aftonbladet newspaper that the driver had been arrested on suspicion of grossly negligent manslaughter.
Currently police are treating the crash as an accident rather than a deliberate attack, but Norton said no final conclusion had yet been reached.
“That’s exactly what we’re working to establish now – the circumstances and what actually happened," she said. "I don’t want to speculate. The driver will be interviewed, and we’re gathering information from people at the scene who saw what took place."
Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson described the accident as "tragic", noting that those affected would have been on their way home to loved ones for the weekend.
“We still don’t know the cause of this, but right now my thoughts are with those affected and their loved ones," he told Aftonbladet. "The police, ambulance crews and rescue services now face very difficult and important work. I urge everyone to show consideration and understanding for what they need to do.”
A large number of police, ambulances and fire and rescue units are at the scene, with the emergency services reporting that the rush hour traffic was complicating the response.
“It’s rush hour. There are a lot of people here,” said Oscar Davila, a spokesperson for the rescue services.
A woman identified as Michelle Mac Key told Expressen that she had stepped off another bus at the scene just after the accident happened.
"I crossed the road and saw the double-decker bus that had mowed down an entire bus stop queue," she said.
People were screaming and trying to help the injured, she said, adding that she had seen both injured and dead people lying on the ground.
"There must have been more people under the bus," she said.
A nurse by profession, she and another man who was a doctor offered their help to police when they arrived.
"They told us to stand next to the dead bodies," she said. "I thought it was an exercise at first. That maybe they were dolls. It was so unreal. Chaos."
Comments