More than 1,000 Swedish tourists may have died

More than 1,000 Swedish tourists may have been killed by the devastating tsunamis, Prime Minister Goeran Persson said today.

So far, 44 Swedish deaths have been confirmed, he said in Stockholm.

He said it was still “highly uncertain” what the exact death toll will be, but it seemed increasingly clear that Sweden will be the Western country hardest hit by the tsunamis.

“We’re facing a New Year’s celebration unlike anything we’ve seen before,” a solemn Persson said. “This is an extraordinarily serious and sad situation.

“It’s clear to everyone that the final death toll will be in the hundreds,” he said. “In the worst case, it could exceed 1,000.”

According to a government estimate, about 1,400 Swedish tourists are still missing in Thailand, but travel agencies warned the number of Swedes unaccounted for could be more than 3,000.

An additional 400 Swedes are in Thai hospitals, some with life-threatening injuries, the government said.

Persson said Sweden faces a “close to inhuman” challenge in the coming months when it struggles to cope with what will likely be the Scandinavian country’s worst disaster in modern times, possibly exceeding the more than 500 Swedes killed when the ferry Estonia sank in the Baltic Sea in 1994.

“When the country’s schools reopen and work places open their doors again, a lot of chairs will be empty,” Persson said. “The big challenge is still ahead of us.”

The announcement came after several travel agents said the number of missing Swedes could be as many as 3,000.

Johan Elwin, marketing director for Svenska Resegruppen, a group that includes three travel agencies, said about 550 of its 700 passengers who booked flights to the hardest-hit areas still couldn’t be contacted by Thursday.

STA-travel, another travel agent, said at least 1,600 of its customers who booked flights to Thailand were unaccounted for. Most of them were backpackers whose location was unknown when the tidal waves hit, but many of them were likely in Phuket or Khao Lang, company spokesman Stefan Born said.

Kilroy Travels said its list of passengers to the disaster area included about 600 names of people still missing.