The landslide damaged the motorway between Sweden’s second biggest city Gothenburg and Norway’s capital Oslo, near the small town of Stenungsund, around 50km north of Gothenburg on Sweden’s west coast.

“The landslide has affected an area of around 100m x 150m, around ten vehicles, a wooded area, and a business area with a gas station and a fast food restaurant,” Gothenburg rescue services said.

“A number of people have been helped out of vehicles in the slide area with the help of fire personnel and a helicopter,” they said.

Several cars and one truck had fallen into holes and cracks caused by the landslide, Swedish news agency TT reported.

A rescue services spokesman told public broadcaster SVT all people in the vehicles had been helped out.

The rescue services said specially trained staff and search dogs would now search the area, and that further slides could not be ruled out.