Aftonbladet, Sweden's biggest-selling newspaper, said the four youngsters were not just friends but two couples, who met each other in Thailand about a year ago. They were ''returning to the paradise where they got to know each other,'' the newspaper said. A friend added: ''They lived each day fully. I know they died happy and they died together.''


PHUKET: Four Swedish friends thoroughly enjoyed their diving holiday on Phuket before catching an illegal Phuket taxi north to die in a collision with a runaway truck.

Photographs of the vehicle's numberplate show that it is not a registered Phuket taxi, just one of thousands of private vehicles used as illegal cabs.

A person from the Chongko Guesthouse in Patong, where the four Swedish friends stayed, did not wish to be named today but told Phuketwan that the Swedes were ''delightful young people.''

''They were so happy to talk to staff and other guests,'' he said. ''They were only here for a few days, but they made quite an impression.''

The friends - Johan Olof Nikolas Svensson, Frida Madeleine Falk, Anders Tobias Larsson, Elin Marita Hedbris, all aged 21 or 22, and the driver - all died when the illegal taxi collided with a truck about 7am yesterday on a stretch of divided highway, with two lanes going each way.

The runaway truck crossed the median strip and, judging by the wreckage, appeared to run straight over the top of the illegal vehicle, mangling everything. It took transport workers three hours to free the bodies.

Now the hunt is on for the high-speed truck's runaway driver, who abandoned his six-wheeler with a rainbow painted on the side, saw what had happened to the illegal taxi and its occupants, and vanished.

On Phuket today, about 80 minutes' drive south in Patong, the man at the Chongko Guesthouse said: ''I think three of them were students, and their friend had a job, something in electronics.

''They spent their time here enjoying snorkelling. They went to Raya island and they also went to the Similans.

''They asked about going to Chomporn province, to do some more snorkelling and diving. We offered them use of a minibus to carry all their luggage.

''It would have cost them 6000 baht for the five-hour drive.

''They said that was a bit more than they could afford, so they went hunting for a better deal and got the 'black' taxi for just 5000 baht.''

Police investigators are today questioning the owner of the truck about the vanishing driver. The driver is likely to face serious charges even if he surrenders to police, as many fleeing drivers do within a day or so of a fatal crash.

Use of the private car may complicate any insurance claims. Phang Nga's Deputy Director of Transport, Wanta Pumaroadsukon, said today: ''Don't call these vehicles taxis. They are illegal, and they shouldn't be used to transport tourists, or anyone for that matter.''

Thousands of illegal cabbies ply Phuket's roads, largely because the extortionate rates charged by them and the local tuk-tuk open-cabs make the easy, unskilled and unregulated work appealing to many.

Complaints from tourists and their embassies about the extortionate rates and the lack of safety and service standards have for years fallen on deaf ears on Phuket.

The large Swedish community on Phuket and in Phang Nga is expected to join in mourning the young Swedes, with church services on Phuket certain to commemorate their passing.