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CRIMINAL

Family hurt after crash with hijacked taxi

A family of four were taken to hospital on Saturday evening after a 26-year-old man crashed into their car while driving into oncoming traffic in a hijacked taxi.

Wielding a knife, the man forced a taxi driver to hand over the keys to his vehicle while parked on Folkungagatan in the Södermalm area of central Stockholm at around midnight on Saturday night.

The man then proceeded to drive at high speed heading south until he was forced off the road by police vehicles giving chase on Huddingevägen.

But the man refused to accede, turned the hijacked vehicle around and headed back into traffic along the busy southern ring road.

Soon after the vehicle was involved in a violent crash with another taxi.

The taxi was carrying four passengers, including two children, who together with the driver were taken to hospital for treatment on their injuries. The 26-year-old man was also hurt in the crash.

Five of the injured were at 7am on Sunday morning being treated in hospital for various fractures and their condition is said to be stable, according to a report in the Expressen daily.

The condition of the youngest child is reported by the Aftonbladet daily to be serious but stable.

The 26-year-old man has meanwhile been arrested on suspicion of a series of criminal offences but had by 9am on Sunday not yet been interviewed by police.

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SYRIA

Swiss woman stands trial for attempting to join Islamic State

A 31-year-old woman from Winterthur who tried to travel to Syria to join Islamic State (IS) is standing trial under Swiss anti-terror laws.

Swiss woman stands trial for attempting to join Islamic State
The federal criminal court in Bellinzona. Photo: Swiss Confederation/OFCL

The alleged ‘jihadi tourist' appeared before Switzerland's federal criminal court in Bellinzona on Friday, the Swiss news agency SDA reported. 

In December 2015, the woman, accompanied by her four-year-old child, attempted to travel to Syria via Greece and Turkey in order to join IS, the authorities allege. 

Her intended destination was Raqqa, which was at the time an IS stronghold in Syria.

The woman was prevented from continuing her journey by the Greek authorities and was arrested at Zurich airport on her return to Switzerland in January 2016. 

The Swiss attorney general's office filed an indictment against the Swiss national for offences under the federal law that bans terror groups including Isis. 

According to the indictment, the woman radicalized herself through internet propaganda after converting to Islam in 2009.

It says the Swiss national believed it was the duty of all Muslims to support IS.

She said she rejected western values.

This is only the second case concerning a so-called ‘jihadi tourist' to go before Switzerland's federal criminal court. 

The first prosecution of its kind took place in 2016, when a 26-year-old man was found guilty of attempting to travel to join Isis and given an 18-month suspended jail sentence.

Islamic State has been banned in Switzerland since 2014.