Piles of flowers and candles are growing by the cordons outside the Kronan school where the attack took place on Thursday morning.
Reporters in the town for Swedish news agency TT say that Trollhättan appears “paralyzed” the day after the attack, with the streets almost empty.
Photo: Adam Ihse/TT
“I think this affects all of us living here. Look around. There is almost no one outside. I think people are at home, thinking about what has happened,” Ellinor Anstrin, who first heard about the attack on the radio, told TT.
Photo: Adam Ihse/TT
Some residents left their own personal messages outside the school. “An attack against you, is an attack against us,” one expressed in a letter (shown above).
“We cannot, and will not, let our safety and freedom be deprived by a terrorist,” it continued.
Photo: Björn Larsson Rosvall/TT
Local authorities have activated several crisis groups to help pupils and staff at the school, which is still closed due to technical investigations.
Others have described how they fear for other children in the area.
“I work in a preschool and we reacted immediately by taking the children indoors and locking the door. You don’t think that it can happen here, anywhere but here,” Sara Lindh told TT.
Photo: Adam Ihse/TT
Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has also visited Trollhättan, where he expressed his dismay at the violence.
“What never should happen, has happened here today,” he said at a press conference, and kept repeating that Thursday was “a black day” for his country.
Photo: Björn Larsson Rosvall/TT
Article written by The Local's intern August Håkansson.
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