30-year-old man in court today for Västerås knife attack 

A 30-year-old man will be in court today to hear whether he can be held in pre-trial custody for the attempted murder of four people in Friday’s knife attack in the city of Västerås. 

The man wounded three elderly women and a teenage boy in the attack, which took place in broad daylight. 

Police have yet to determine a motive for the attack, but blood tests showed that the man was under the influence of narcotics at the time of the attack. 

“Police did a rapid analysis of substances in the blood of the suspect and the result was positive,” Robin Simonsson from the Swedish prosecutor’s office said. 

The man was caught in a residential area about a kilometre from the area in central Västerås where he carried out the attack.  

Swedish vocabulary: drogpåverkad – under the influence of drugs

50-year-old man assaulted by teenage gang in Stockholm 

A 50-year-old man was assaulted by a teenage gang in Stockholm on Saturday night, after he confronted them outside his home, police have told the Aftonbladet newspaper. 

The man had come out of his home in the residential area of Hässelby to remonstrate with the youth, when they attacked him.

“There had been a party in the area and the man went out and confronted the youths outside his property,” the police chief on duty told Aftonbladet. 

Anna Westberg, police spokesperson for TT, said she could not give the exact age of the youths. When police came to the scene at 1am, they found the man badly injured outside a kindergarten. She said a baseball bat had been used in the assault. 

Police have so far not arrested anyone for involvement in the assault. 

Swedish vocabulary: basebollträ – baseball bat

Green group protests Overshoot Day with scarf 

Rebellmammorna (the Rebel Mothers), an offshoot of the Extinction Rebellion campaign group, marked Sweden’s ‘Overshoot Day’ with a protest in Stockholm, where they carried a 4,250 metre long red scarf from the Sergels Torg square to the Swedish parliament. 

Overshoot Day fell on April 21st this year, and marks the day on which “Sweden’s demand for ecological resources and service”  for the year exceeded what the planet Earth can regenerate in that year.

The Rebel Mothers have been in the news in Sweden recently after an activist for the group was denied a job at Sweden’s Energy Authority as she was deemed a security threat. 

Swedish vocabulary: att förbruka – to consume 

Cold weather to stay this week in Sweden

The unseasonably cold, if sunny, weather, Sweden experienced last week is expected to continue this week, with temperatures only starting to rise from the middle of the week, along with increased rain and even snow, in areas north of Stockholm. 

From Wednesday, rain and snow is expected to arrive in southern Sweden, with snow also expected in the north of Norrland, as a low pressure zone sweeps over the country. 

Swedish vocabulary: lågtrycket – the low pressure (zone)