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SAAB

Trollhättan plant nabs Saab 9-3

The next generation of Saab 9-3 cars is to be built in Trollhättan in western Sweden.

Published: 19 June 2008 15:53 CEST

The 9-3 constitutes two thirds of Saabs total production, and the news was very much welcomed by Saab’s 2000 employees.

Saab’s directors were informed on Thursday of the decision by their mother company General Motors Europe’s MD Carl-Peter Forster.

“Of course we are extremely happy, not least for all those who have worked so hard in the factory to make sure we have an effective factory that delivers high quality”, Eric Geers, head of information for Saab Automobile told TT.

Geers wouldn’t reveal when the new Saab 9-3 will be unveiled. However, he did reveal that the Trollhättan factory currently manufactures 100,000 cars, of which most, around 90,000 are Saab 9-3s.

Geers told TT that it was great that the 9-3 would continue to be manufactured in Trollhättan.

“The automobile industry is tough right now, lots of things are happening. That is why it is good we got the news that the 9-3 is to be built here.”

It has been three years since rumours first started that production could move to a rival production plant in Germany.

The relief felt by staff at the Trollhättan plant was palpable. “Naturally we are extremely happy with the decision”, said Paul Åkerlund, chairman for the trade union IF Metall in Trollhättan.

TROLLHÄTTAN

Trollhättan remembers school attack victims

Hundreds of people on Saturday turned out for a torchlight procession in the small town of Trollhättan in southwestern Sweden to honour the victims of last year’s deadly school attack there.

Published: 23 October 2016 12:12 CEST
Trollhättan remembers school attack victims
'It was an attack on all of Sweden,' Education Minister Gustav Fridolin said. Photo: Thomas Johansson/ TT

Three people were killed in an attack that shocked Sweden as a masked, sword-wielding assailant entered the school, stabbing students and teachers who appeared to be of foreign origin. Several people were also injured. The attacker, 21-year-old Anton Lundin Pettersson, was then shot dead by police.

“It was an attack on all of Sweden,” Education Minister Gustav Fridolin said as the procession ended outside the school.

In the week running up to the one-year anniversary, students of the school had made thousands of postcards in memory of the teacher, pupil and teacher aide who were killed in the assault.

A police investigation has showed that Lundin had planned the attack, which lasted around 10 minutes, after being inspired by racist websites.

A teenage student told The Local at the time that many people at the school at first thought it was some kind of a prank.

“I was in a classroom with my class when one of my classmates’ sisters called her to warn her that there was a murderer at the school. So we locked the door to the classroom, but our teacher was still outside in the corridor.”

“We wanted to warn him, so a few of us went outside and then I saw the murderer, he was wearing a mask and had a sword. Our teacher got stabbed.”

“The murderer started chasing me, I ran into another classroom. If I had not run, I would have been murdered. I’m feeling really scared. Everyone’s scared here.”

Trollhättan is an industrial town with around 50,000 residents.