Historic Swedish church inches closer to new home

Kiruna, Sweden: A historic red wooden church considered one of Sweden s most beautiful buildings resumed its slow move across the Arctic town of Kirun...

Kiruna, Sweden: A historic red wooden church considered one of Sweden's most beautiful buildings resumed its slow move across the Arctic town of Kiruna on Wednesday, inching toward its new home to allow Europe's biggest underground mine to expand.

Kiruna's entire town centre is being relocated because of the giant LKAB iron ore mine that dominates the region, whose ever deeper burrowing over the years has weakened the ground, increasing the risk of collapse in some parts.

Kiruna Kyrka, an imposing 672-tonne Swedish Lutheran church from 1912, is being moved five kilometres (three miles) on remote-controlled flatbed trailers, moving at a snail's pace of half a kilometre an hour to the new Kiruna town.

The complex and costly logistical operation began on Tuesday and was scheduled to be completed on Wednesday around 2:00 or 3:00 pm (1200 or 1300 GMT).

The journey has so far gone smoothly for the 1,200-tonne convoy, but was expected to proceed more slowly on Wednesday due to some tricky narrow passages and 90 degree turns, officials said.