British News Agency

An alert over a potentially major aviation incident was issued on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. local time. According to the newspaper Lapin Kansa, nine rescue teams were dispatched to the scene.

Rescue services said that a passenger aircraft with around 150 people on board and a smaller plane carrying fewer than ten people slid sideways off the runway due to strong winds and ended up in a snowdrift.

All air traffic to Kittilä, Rovaniemi and Ivalo in Lapland was temporarily suspended in the evening. Finavia told Yle that it is unclear when flights will resume.

The winter storm known as Hannes in Finland left thousands of households without power. According to the Energy Industry Federation’s map, more than 80,000 households were without electricity at 8:00 p.m., rising to 170,000 by 10:30 p.m.

Rescue teams are working intensively in western and northern Finland due to fallen trees and roofs blown off. The weather conditions caused traffic accidents, but no serious injuries were reported.

Meanwhile, thousands of people in Sweden were also left without power due to the storm. Two people died in Sweden: one was a man in his 40s who was killed under a tree just outside Sandviken north of Stockholm, and another died after being trapped under a tree in the town of Härnösand on the country’s east coast.