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STOCKHOLM SUICIDE BOMBING

TERRORIST

Government staff knew of bomb threat: report

A Swedish government employee allegedly knew ahead of time about last month's suicide bomb attack in Stockholm, but failed to inform Swedish security service Säpo, according to new media reports.

Government staff knew of bomb threat: report

Citing several sources with knowledge of the ongoing investigation of the bomb attacks carried out by Taimour Abdulwahab, Swedish tabloid Expressen reported that an employee at a government agency knew in advance about the attack.

The day following the December 11th attacks, Swedish news agency TT reported that an Armed Forces employee had sent a warning to an acquaintance several hours before the bomb attack.

In the message, the military staffer warned the acquaintance to avoid Stockholm’s main pedestrian shopping street.

“If you can, avoid Drottninggatan today. A lot could happen there…just so you know,” the message said, according to TT.

Following an internal investigation carried out by the Military Intelligence and Security Service (Militära underrättelse- och säkerhetstjänsten — MUST) the Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten) dismissed the allegations, Expressen reported on Wednesday.

Säpo, which is still investigating the reports, said it never received a warning. Despite the denial, Säpo is continuing its own investigation into the allegations.

“This information is contained in the investigation into the events on December 11th,” Säpo spokesperson Sirpa Franzén told Expressen.

According to the newspaper, Säpo believes the warning to have come from an employee at another Swedish agency who received information about the impending attack.

Franzén declined to comment on the allegations to Expressen.

TT’s editorial chief Mats Johansson said on Wednesday that he stood by the credibility of the agency’s sources, maintaining that the warning came from someone within Sweden’s Armed Forces.

Lund University professor and intelligence expert Wilhelm Agrell interprets Expressen’s report as a tentative confirmation of the initial reports.

“It indicates that there has been some sort of verification of the original information that come from TT. It’s a clarification of where the warning may have come from,” Agrell told TT.

STOCKHOLM

Stockholm Pride is a little different this year: here’s what you need to know 

This week marks the beginning of Pride festivities in the Swedish capital. The tickets sold out immediately, for the partly in-person, partly digital events. 

Pride parade 2019
There won't be a Pride parade like the one in 2019 on the streets of Stockholm this year. Photo: Stina Stjernkvist/TT

You might have noticed rainbow flags popping up on major buildings in Stockholm, and on buses and trams. Sweden has more Pride festivals per capita than any other country and is the largest Pride celebration in the Nordic region, but the Stockholm event is by far the biggest.  

The Pride Parade, which usually attracts around 50,000 participants in a normal year, will be broadcast digitally from Södra Teatern on August 7th on Stockholm Pride’s website and social media. The two-hour broadcast will be led by tenor and debater Rickard Söderberg.

The two major venues of the festival are Pride House, located this year at the Clarion Hotel Stockholm at Skanstull in Södermalm, and Pride Stage, which is at Södra Teatern near Slussen.

“We are super happy with the layout and think it feels good for us as an organisation to slowly return to normal. There are so many who have longed for it,” chairperson of Stockholm Pride, Vix Herjeryd, told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.

Tickets are required for all indoor events at Södra Teatern to limit the number of people indoors according to pandemic restrictions. But the entire stage programme will also be streamed on a big screen open air on Mosebacketerassen, which doesn’t require a ticket.  

You can read more about this year’s Pride programme on the Stockholm Pride website (in Swedish). 

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