D.he Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who was under police protection for a cartoon of Mohammed, died on Sunday in a traffic accident in Sweden. In addition to the 75-year-old, the two police officers who were deployed to protect the artist were also killed, the Swedish police told the AFP news agency.
The accident occurred in the afternoon on the E4 motorway near the town of Markaryd in the south of the country, when the car with Vilks and the police collided with a truck driving in the opposite direction. The authorities ruled out an attack on Vilks. The case will be “investigated like any other traffic accident”.
According to the daily newspaper “Expressen”, the vehicle with Vilks broke through a guardrail for an as yet unexplained cause before it collided with the truck. According to the police, the truck driver was hospitalized.
“That the person we wanted to protect and two colleagues were killed in this tragedy is incredible and very sad,” said Carina Persson, head of the regional police.
Vilks has been under police protection since 2007 after painting Mohammed as a dog. On February 14, 2015, the cartoonist was the target of an attack in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. Vilks escaped the 22-year-old Danish assassin with Palestinian roots at a free speech event, but he killed Danish filmmaker Finn Nörgaard and injured three police officers. The convicted criminal later killed a Jewish security guard in front of a synagogue and injured two policemen before the police shot him in front of his apartment.
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