All four members of British indie band Viola Beach were killed in the early hours of Saturday morning when their car plunged from a bridge into a canal near Stockholm, Sweden.
Kris Leonard, River Reeves, Tomas Lowe, Jack Dakin and manager Craig Tarry — who were aged from 19 to 32 — perished in the fatal crash, the BBC reported.
The four-piece group from Warrington, Cheshire, had played their first gig outside of the U.K. at Sweden’s Where’s the Music? festival just hours before the accident on the E4 highway in Stockholm’s Sodertalje district.
Viola Beach released their debut single “Swings & Waterslides” last year, with the follow up, “Boys That Sing,” going public on Jan. 22.
At the time of the accident, there were two sets of safety barriers in place on the bridge, red warning lights were flashing and other drivers were waiting, according to Swedish police. However, the band’s car fell through a gap that had opened to let a boat pass through.
According to witness reports, the brake lights on the car were not operated, suggesting the driver did not realize that the bridge had opened.
Viola Beach were on their way to Arlanda airport to return to the U.K. when the crash occurred and were due to play in Guildford, England, later that day.
Postmortem examinations are due to be carried out to determine whether the driver was intoxicated at the time of the accident or if the car had technical faults, Carina Skagerlind, a spokesperson for Stockholm police, said.
“There are hundreds of possibilities. We are looking at the car, we are looking at the circumstances, we are talking to witnesses. We don’t have any answers yet and we have to look at everything,” she explained.