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CRIME

Gang rivalry leading to more violence: police

An increase in the number of criminal gangs in Sweden is behind a rise in violent crime in the last two years, according to police.

Gang rivalry leading to more violence: police
Police on the scene of a May 11 shooting in Malmö thought to be gang related

“Conflicts erupt over the criminal territories in the markets people are trying to enter, whether its drugs or extortion,” Klas Friberg of the Sweden’s National Bureau of Investigation (Rikskriminalpolisen) told Sveriges Radio (SR).

Since the start of the year, there have been more than 20 shootings in Gothenburg and Malmö alone, many with clear connections to criminal gangs.

New measures to fight organised crime in Sweden have given police a more far-reaching picture of the problem.

In addition to conflicts between established gangs like the Outlaws, Hells Angels, and Bandidos, police have also seen a rise in new gangs based in the suburbs which have lead to increasing competition between the rival groups.

According to Friberg, the new gangs are ready to use “unproportionately extreme violence” to gain share of the criminal market.

Tension between criminal factions isn’t restricted to Sweden’s large cities either.

Håkan Stenbäck, a police chief in Linköping in central Sweden told SR that the situation in his city has changed “quite quickly” in the last year.

Police are now looking into what may lie behind the growth in suburban gangs in Sweden.

“In some way, I think that all of us in society need to think about how we raise young men,” said Friberg.

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LANDSLIDE

Swedish authorities: Worker negligence behind motorway landslide

Swedish authorities said on Thursday that worker negligence at a construction site was believed to be behind a landslide that tore apart a motorway in western Sweden in September.

Swedish authorities: Worker negligence behind motorway landslide

The landslide, which struck the E6 highway in Stenungsund, 50 kilometres north of Sweden’s second-largest city Gothenburg, ripped up a petrol station car park, overturned lorries and caved in the roof of a fast food restaurant.

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Prosecutor Daniel Veivo Pettersson said on Thursday he believed “human factors” were behind the landslide as “no natural cause” had been found during the investigation.

He told a press conference the landslide had been triggered by a nearby construction site where too much excavated material had been piled up, putting excessive strain on the ground below. 

“At this stage, we consider it negligent, in this case grossly negligent, to have placed so much excavated material on the site,” Pettersson said.

Pettersson added that three people were suspected of among other things gross negligence and causing bodily harm, adding that the investigation was still ongoing.

The worst-hit area covered around 100 metres by 150 metres, but the landslide affected an area of around 700 metres by 200 metres in total, according to emergency services.

Three people were taken to hospital with minor injuries after the collapse, according to authorities.

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