Crow blamed for crop blaze

In a turn of events that sounds like it was the product of a comedy animator's imagination, a crow managed to set fire to a field outside Enköping in Sweden.

First, the crow flew into an electricity cable. Then, after a nasty electric shock the bird burst into flames, burning to death.

Still ablaze, the dead crow dropped to earth, landing in a pile of hay in the field in Österunda, outside Enköping , 80km west of Stockholm.

The hay quickly caught fire and the blaze spread to the whole field before four fire engines arrived to put a stop to the infernal farce.

"I've never seen anything like this before", said fire officer Per Gustafsson.

Nobody was injured in the blaze, which destroyed around 250 square metres of crops.