Muhammad caricaturist Lars Vilks dead in road accident

Swedish media reported that Lars Vilks, who had lived under police protection since 2007 after receiving death threats for drawing the Islamic prophet with a dog's body, died in a traffic accident on Sunday.

Officials said an attack was not behind the accident.

Two police officers who were travelling with him at the time were also killed. The accident took place in the afternoon while the car was traveling on the E4 highway near the town of Markaryd in southern Sweden.

A truck reportedly broke through the dividing guardrail before hitting the civilian police car in which Vilks and his police protection were traveling.

The newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported that the artist's partner confirmed his death.

Authorities ruled out an attack on Vilks, but the cause of the accident was under investigation "as with every road traffic accident".

The truck driver was taken to the hospital.

"It's very sad that the person who we wanted to protect died in this tragedy, along with two colleagues," Carina Persson, head of the regional police said.

The 75-year-old was largely unknown outside Sweden before his Muhammad drawing. At home, he was best known for building a sculpture made of driftwood in a nature reserve in southern Sweden without permission, triggering a lengthy legal battle.

But his life changed radically 13 years ago after he drew a sketch of Muhammad with a dog's body. Dogs are considered unclean by conservative Muslims, and Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet.

Al-Qaida put a bounty on Vilks' head. In 2010, two men tried to burn down his house in southern Sweden. In 2020, a woman from Pennsylvania in the U.S. pleaded guilty in a plot to try to kill him.    (AFP/AP)