Extreme cold has hit the north of Sweden, with temperatures reaching lower than -40 degrees Celsius in some areas.On Tuesday, train company VY announced that all departures north of Umeå were cancelled until Thursday for safety reasons, due to the cold weather.

More than 100 acres of forest have burned in Kornsjø on the Swedish border. At one point, several cabins were in danger of catching fire.

Fredrik Dahlborg, manager of bus manufacturer VDL, told P4 Västerbotten that a combination of the weather and road salt is the problem. Despite this, Umeå municipality say they will keep using the electric buses.

The Finnish Coast Guard came to the rescue of a whale caught in a fish trap on Saturday in the narrow region of the Gulf of Bothnia known as Kvarken.