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Stockholm man found shot dead in crashed car

A man shot dead was discovered by police on Tuesday in the southern Stockholm district of Östberga, after a local passer-by reported his car careening into several parked vehicles.

Published: 20 September 2011 14:53 CEST

Stockholm man found shot dead in crashed car

”We are pretty sure that the perpetrator meant to target him, that it was not an accident,” Karin Solberg, press spokesperson for the South Stockholm Police told The Local.

The dead body was discovered by a passer-by who alerted the police just before 7am on Tuesday morning. The man saw a car with a smashed-in window and a lifeless body behind the wheel.

”He didn’t want to get too close but kept his distance,” said police inspector Sven-Erik Olsson to daily Aftonbladet.

When police arrived on the scene they quickly established that the man was dead and that he most likely had died from a gunshot which had shattered the side window.

The victim was subsequently identified by the police.

He is a 37-year-old Stockholm resident and so far the police have not been able to find connections to any criminal activities that could have brought on his murder.

”At the moment we are busy trying to get an idea of his past, pinpointing any connections, persons or motives that may have played a part in his killing,” said Solberg.

According to Solberg, police have received a number of tip-offs and are presently busy questioning witnesses resident in the area.

Apart from the statement from the man who discovered the crashed vehicle, police have questioned locals who say that they’ve heard a series of loud bangs earlier in the morning.

Despite not being able to disclose anything further at the present stage in the investigation, Solberg confirmed that the police are working from several theories.

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Swedish rail derailments could be linked to 'Russian-backed sabotage'

The report comes just days after prosecutors arrested two German-Russian men on suspicion of spying for Russia and planning attacks in Germany to undermine military support for Ukraine. There have been similar alleged incidents in several other European countries.

FT also claims that security services in Sweden suspect that a series of recent railway derailments may be acts of state-backed sabotage.

It doesn’t mention any specific incidents, but late last year, a fully-loaded freight train derailed on the Malmbanan near Vassijaure in northern Sweden, damaging around 15 kilometres of the line.

Repairs began quickly, but state-owned Swedish mining company LKAB, which uses the line to transport iron ore was greatly affected, with losses of around 100 million kronor per day while the line was closed and a 3.8 million drop in operating profits for the last quarter of 2024.

It reopened on February 20th, but just five days later it derailed again in Vassijaure, this time along a shorter stretch.

Fredrik Hultgren-Friberg, press spokesperson at the Swedish Security Services (Säpo), reiterated to Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) what’s previously been said, that Säpo is collaborating with police on the Malmbanan investigation.

“Säpo has an ongoing, routine collaboration with the police force on a number of cases, primarily when it cannot be ruled out that a foreign power is involved. One of those collaborations is on the investigation around Malmbanan,” he said.

Hultgren-Friberg declined to comment on the FT’s reports that Russia is planning attacks on European infrastructure.

“What I can confirm is that Russia is the largest single threat to Sweden,” he told SvD. “We’ve said that for a while. What we can see is more aggressive, risky behaviour from Russia in their illegal actions and spying in Sweden.”

Swedish police and Säpo have previously confirmed that they are investigating the Malmbanan incidents as possible sabotage, which doesn’t automatically mean that they actively suspect sabotage, but is also a routine procedure to facilitate the probe.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told Swedish news agency TT that the reports in FT did not come as a surprise to him.

“Russia is prepared to go further and carry out operations and sabotage on other countries’ territory,” he said.

But when asked whether such acts of sabotage had taken place in Sweden, he said that wasn’t the case.

“We haven’t seen any such signs for now, but we are on our toes. Other countries have seen things where they know or believe that there are such connections,” Kristersson said.

In late April, LKAB said it was so badly affected by the derailments that it may need to close temporarily as it’s not able to get stock to customers quickly enough, so its warehouses are nearing capacity.

“It’s a real worry,” LKAB’s CEO Jan Moström told TT. “If we can’t lower our stock then we’re going to have to start dialling down production capacity.”

Moström believes that this could affect up to 600 people – half being LKAB employees and the other half being independent contractors.

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