Guwahati News Desk: The Swedish artist, Lars Vilks, who stirred worldwide controversy in 2007 depicting the Prophet Mohammad with the body of a dog, was killed in a car crash on Sunday.
The car crash took place near the southern town of Markaryd on Sunday.
According to sources, Vilks was travelling in a civilian police vehicle which collided with a truck near the town of Markaryd in southern Sweden.
In the collision, two police officers were also killed and the truck driver was injured.
The Swedish police released a statement on Monday, stating, “This is a very tragic incident. It is now important to all of us that we do everything we can to investigate what happened and what caused the collision.”
A police spokesperson said, “This is being investigated like any other road accident. Because two policemen were involved, an investigation has been assigned to a special section of the prosecutor’s office.”
According to several local media reports, the police car in which Vilks was travelling was at a very high speed.
In addition, one eyewitness also informed that the police car in which Vilks was travelling, seemed to lose control and came over to his side of the motorway at high speed. The truck in front did not have time to swerve and then they collided in a loud bang at “incredible speed”.
He added that a large fire broke out after the accident and a number of emergency vehicles attended at the scene.
Regarding Vilks, the 75-year-old artist had been living under police protection after being subjected to death threats over his cartoonistic portrayal of Prophet Muhammad as a dog.
Vilks made headlines around the world after his 2007 cartoon caused outrage, leading then Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt to meet ambassadors from 22 Muslim countries in an attempt to defuse the situation.
Infact, shortly afterwards, al-Qaeda in Iraq offered a $100,000 (£73,692) reward for his murder.
Furthermore, apart from being famous for his sketch of Muhammad and for remaining in headlines since 2007, Vilks is also well known as an artist and a activist who often worked with paint or created installations.
Photo | Reuters