Two weeks after he became one of far-right killer Anton Lundin Pettersson's victims, the teenager has returned home from hospital, where he underwent five-hour surgery after sustaining serious injuries in the attack.
“I had life-threatening injuries. But today doctors say that I have a good chance at completely recovering. I hope they're right. I am so happy to be alive,” the 15-year-old pupil, named only as 'Wahed', told regional newspaper TTELA in an interview on Friday.
The pupil was the first to open when the armed assailant knocked on the classroom door in the morning of October 22nd.
“At first I thought it was a Halloween joke. But the person didn't say anything so I asked who are you. Then he attacked,” said Wahed.
The sword hit his pancreas, spleen, left lung and arm – narrowly missing the heart.
“My friends screamed when I pulled up my sweater. But not everyone got that it was real blood, some thought it was fake blood done just for a laugh,” he told TTELA.
Police classified the attack as a hate crime after CCTV footage showed that Lundin Pettersson, a 21-year-old with far-right anti-immigrant sympathies who was fatally wounded by officers arriving at the scene, selected his victims on the basis of their skin colour.
Wahed himself came to Sweden a year ago after he fled a war-torn Syria with his mother and siblings.
“I thought then that Sweden was a safe country. I had that perception up until the school attack, and I want to and must get that back. Otherwise I will have let the perpetrator succeed,” he said.
Wahed revealed he has visited Kronan school after the attack to meet teachers and classmates and hopes to be able to attend classes in a week if his strength returns. And he has already decided what he wants to do when he graduates.
“I'm going to become a police officer. Work for a safer, better society,” he said.
Meanwhile, a music video directed by 20-year-old teaching assistant Lavin Eskandar, who died defending some of his pupils in the attack, has been released.
The video was made for rapper Hamodii and his song 'La Beef', who paid tribute to Eskandar in a Facebook post on Friday, writing: “Here it is! Lavin's last work, this one is for you. I know you were psyched to release it, bro.”
The funerals of Eskandar and Ahmed Hassan, a 15-year-old pupil also killed in the stabbings, took place last week, with thousands of friends, family, staff and pupils turning out to remember them.
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