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Author of Prophet Mohammad cartoon Lars Vilks dies in car crash in Sweden — report

It is currently unclear how the accident happened

STOCKHOLM, October 4. /TASS/. Lars Vilks - a Swedish artist known for his Prophet Muhammad cartoons - and two policemen guarding him died in a car crash with a truck in southern Sweden, SVT channel reported Sunday.

According to the report, both vehicles caught fire upon impact. The truck driver was also seriously injured. It is currently unclear how the accident happened. The truck driver was questioned in the hospital.

Vilks was the author of a sketch of a roundabout dog with a head of Prophet Muhammad. The sketch was published in a Swedish newspaper in November 2007, causing outrage among Muslims in many countries around the world. According to some reports, Al Qaeda promised up to $100,000 for Vilks’s head.

Since then, the artist lived under police protection. In 2010, a court sentenced two people to two and three years in prison for the arson attempt at Vilks’s house. Several days before the arson attempt, the artist was attacked in the Uppsala University after his lecture on art and the freedom of expression.

In March that year, an extremist group preparing an attack on Vilks was arrested in Ireland. The group involved US citizen Colleen LaRose, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison one year ago.

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