A Finnish-Turkish family was involved in a severe traffic accident on a motorway in the north of Lithuania late on Monday night, which claimed the lives of the family's Finnish mother and Turkish father. According to local police, the man was 39 and the woman was 33.
The couple's three children, two boys aged 11 and nine and a three-year-old girl, were also injured in the crash and are currently being treated in the intensive care unit of a local hospital. Authorities have not yet confirmed the children's nationality.
Tuomas Sottinen, communications officer with Finland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs, said the ministry is aware of the incident but because of the privacy issues involved, cannot make any comment at this time.
Sottinen told Yle that the ministry will offer assistance through the local consulate.
Local media in Lithuania reported that the BMW car involved in the accident was registered in Finland, and that it was being driven at the time by the father of the family.
According to Lithuanian police, the accident occurred just before midnight on the Panevėžys-Pasvalys-Riga motorway, when the family's car collided with a semi-trailer truck which propelled it into the path of a second semi-trailer.