Scandinavians brace for bad news as thousands remain missing

SCANDINAVIAN countries are preparing themselves for national tragedies as the realisation dawns that most of the Europeans missing after the south Asian tsunami are from Sweden and Norway.

After local media accused authorities of being slow to respond, Sweden sent Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds to Thailand, and the Scandinavian airline SAS scrambled extra planes to bring its citizens home.

“There are not many people in Sweden who do not have some kind of personal link to this tragedy,” Ms Freivalds said.