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CRIME

Busy Christmas weekend for the Swedish police

Murders, break-ins and accidents made it a busy Christmas holiday weekend for the police and emergency services across Sweden this year.

Busy Christmas weekend for the Swedish police

With so many people traditionally away from their homes, Christmas is often a busy time for burglars and this year proved to be no exception.

28 break-ins were reported in the county of Skåne, in the south of Sweden, alone, while there was also a spate of burglaries in Kalmar, Oskarshamn and Partille.

The worst hit area was the western part of the county, with six burglaries in Helsingborg, five in Malmö and four in Ängelholm.

“Most of the burglaries were discovered in the evening when people came home after Christmas celebrations with relatives and friends,” said Skåne police on their website.

Meanwhile further north in Växjö, Kronoberg County, thieves broke into a safety deposit at the county council building and found keys to several vehicles, including minivans and cars, which they proceeded to steal.

The building itself was vandalised and several computers were also reportedly stolen during the robbery.

There were also a pair of murder cases for police to deal with. In the capital, a 23-year-old man died from stab wounds, following an attack in the stairwell of a block of apartments in Fittja just outside Stockholm.

Three people, two women and one man, have been arrested by local police as their enquiries continue, while a similar investigation was launched in Kristinehamn when a man in his 30s was found dead outdoors in the early hours of Christmas Day.

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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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