One dead after Malmö drive-by shooting

The news of the death was first reported by Swedish broadcaster TV4 around lunchtime, with the police confirming it soon after.

“Yes, that's the case, but I can't say anything more about the circumstances,” Malmö police spokesperson Ewa-Gun Westford told Sydsvenskan. 

As The Local reported on Sunday evening, the shooting broke out shortly before 7pm in a street in the southern city's Fosie district. Police in the area brought one of the wounded to hospital.

“The three other injured were able to make their own way to hospital,” the police said in a statement.

According to witnesses interviewed by the Sydsvenskan newspaper, local residents were able to take the injured to hospital in their cars before emergency services arrived.

“The attackers were able to flee on scooters. An inquiry has been opened for attempted murder. No suspect has been apprehended,” the police statement said.

Mutliple eye witnesses told Swedish media that there had been a car chase, with the four victims in one vehicle and two scooters pursuing them.

The car ended up ramming into a tree before multiple individuals on the scooters, who all had their faces covered, opened fire on the vehicle, shooting off some 20 rounds, local media reported.

A police investigator told Swedish radio's local station P4 Malmöhus that there had been children inside an apartment which was hit by bullets in the shooting.

“It's a miracle there aren't more people in hospital,” said Mats Attin. He added to Sydsvenskan: “At least one bullet, but probably two, went into that apartment and a child was very close to being hit. We're talking about a few centimetres.”

While Sweden is generally a peaceful, safe country with low crime rates, police have had difficulty addressing violence in poorer neighbourhoods in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.

In recent years, there have been grenade attacks, shootings and incidents of car arson.

At the end of August, an eight-year-old child was killed when a grenade was thrown into the apartment where he was sleeping.

One of the people registered at the address was a person who had been convicted for murder in a settling of scores between members of the Somali community in Gothenburg, police said at the time.