?A Swedish ice hockey referee died Saturday after a fatal blow to the back of his head by a puck, according to the Swedish public radio SR.

The 62-year-old man was hit by the puck when he refereed an under-18 game in Solleftea, a northern city of Sweden, the police spokesman Borje Ohman was quoted as saying.

"The puck struck the referee between the nape (of the neck) and the lower part of his head, just under where the helmet stops," said Ohman.

The referee was immediately unconscious and pronounced dead upon arrival at a local hospital.

Jorgen Lindgren, the general secretary of the Swedish ice hockey federation, said it has been the first such incident in Sweden.