"I was the first person to stop at the accident scene," taxi driver Hans Lantto told reporters near Rosvik, Sweden, "so I got out of my car to try and assist the injured. It was -25C, so I let two slightly injured victims sit in my Mercedes taxi while we waited for the ambulance service to arrive.

When the rescue services turned up, they asked me where the victims were, so I pointed to my car. But before I could explain to them that my taxi had not been involved in the crash, they took out their axes and hydraulic shears and begun cutting its roof off, without asking the survivors if they could simply get out through the doors.

"Only after they'd lifted both people out through the top would they listen to me, and even then they insisted that the removal of my taxi's roof was the correct thing to do, and that the decision had been made after consultation with the medical authorities.

A new taxi will cost 450,000 Swedish Crowns (£39,081), and I'm having a hell of a job convincing the insurance company that I'm not making the whole story up."