The accident occurred early yesterday at a construction site in the northern Stockholm suburb of Sundbyberg when the elevator suddenly crashed 20m to the ground.

The five people in the elevator, whose nationalities and identities have yet to be confirmed, were initially determined to be in serious condition but were confirmed dead today.

“Efforts to establish the identities of the deceased are ongoing” and the families of the victims are in the process of being informed, prosecutor Gunnar Jonasson said in a statement.

The cause of the accident is not yet known and a technical investigation is underway at the site.

The accident occurred at a construction site for a 14-storey apartment building.

Tomas Kullberg, a spokesman for the construction workers’ union Byggnads, told Swedish news agency TT that the victims were subcontracted to work on the site.

Some 50 builders were working at the site.

“It is deeply tragic that five people have died, and our thoughts go out to their families,” said Kullberg, who added that the workers may have been foreign labourers.

The municipality of Sundbyberg today suspended all work at the site due to “the risk and danger to life and health”.

Sweden’s prosecution service said in a statement that “the crime classification in the ongoing preliminary investigation is workplace violations causing aggravated involuntary homicide.”