STOCKHOLM — A bus exploded on Sunday morning in the heart of Stockholm after ramming into a barrier near the entrance of a tunnel in the Swedish capital.

No passengers were on the bus, the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reported, but the driver was taken to a hospital.

Emergency services received calls about the crash at Klara Tunnel in central Stockholm about 11:25 a.m. local time.

A witness, Björn Wallentin, told Aftonbladet: “I heard a big explosion and then several smaller ones. It sounded like the scaffolding of a building falling down. I thought it was a terror attack.”

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear, but there were no indications of any link to terrorism. The Stockholm police told the newspaper that the bus ran on natural gas.

After the crash, a plume of black smoke could be seen rising from the wreckage of the bus, which was consumed in flames that stretched above nearby buildings.

Another witness told Aftonbladet that a notice on the bus indicated that it had not been in service at the time.

A third witness, Linus Axelsson, told Aftonbladet: “I had just parked my car and then heard this enormous explosion and the bus was in flames. It was scary.”

The driver was headed toward the northern part of the city, where his bus route was to start, Patrik Aberg, a spokesman for Keolis, the driver’s employer, told Aftonbladet.

The bus plowed into a barrier indicating the maximum height for vehicles traveling into the tunnel.

“The bus drove into a beam hanging down from the tunnel entrance, and then the gas tank on the roof exploded,” Asa Skold, an operator with the emergency services, told the newspaper.

Mr. Aberg said the bus had taken the wrong road. “You can’t drive that way because the buses are too tall,” he said.

The fire had been extinguished by 12:04 p.m., according to a reporter for Aftonbladet, who was at the site of the crash.

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