“It must be a madman,” said Erik Kummu, police spokesperson of the county police to local radio station P4 Norrbotten.

According to the police, the man had rung the doorbell of a house in a residential area on the outskirts of Boden, in Norrbotten County, around 2am.

When they opened, he said he was from the post office.

“I thought it was a Halloween prank,” the homeowner told TV4.

The house owner managed to push the armed man out and lock the door behind him.

“The he took a shot, which went through the wall and travelled through yet another one,” Kummu said.

According to police, the man was armed with a rifle.

Just before 5am the man reportedly fired at police, although police couldn’t confirm the reports.

“No one has been hurt yet but he’s carrying a high-calibre weapon,” Kummu told the radio station.

A broadcast journalist, reporting from the scene, said that five armed officers had told him to stay away from the area.

Specially trained officers, K9-patrols and regular police from Boden, Luleå and Piteå took part in the chase.

The elderly couple who resided in the house were evacuated and brought to safety.

By 2pm on Friday afternoon police apprehended a man in connection with the shooting.

“It wasn’t far from where it happened, in a nearby residential area,” a police spokesperson told TT.

While police refused to give out the man’s exact age, they say he fits the description of a man between 16- and 25-years-old.

It is not known whether the man had any connection to the elderly couple into whose home he shot.

“We don’t know exactly what the connection may be, but it’s a small town and a little residential area,” the spokesperson told TT.

Following an interrogation with the man, prosecutors will decide whether or not he should be detained. He is suspected of attempted murder or manslaughter.

The shooting took place in the village of Svartbjörnsbyn and police investigators has launched a forensic examination of the house and its surroundings.

The elderly couple who lived in the house are now staying with relatives and were interviewed by police during the day on Friday.