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CRIME

Children kidnapped in southern Sweden found safe and well

Two children who were kidnapped close to their school in southern Sweden on Wednesday were found safe and well on Thursday evening.

Children kidnapped in southern Sweden found safe and well
The children were found in an apartment in central Malmö. File photo: Emil Langvad / TT .

The children, two siblings both aged under 15, had last been seen close to their school outside Emmaboda in Småland, southern Sweden, on Wednesday afternoon.

Police suspect that the plan had been to drive the children to a different country, and had carried out checks on vehicles crossing the Öresund Bridge to Denmark.

“We have a feeling for what was behind [the kidnapping], but we can't make that public,” police spokesperson Robert Loeffel told TT.

Witnesses told police the children had been forced to get into a car, and a large-scale police operation got underway to find the siblings.

A widespread police search looked for the children, though police said there was no further danger to other children. Arrest warrants were issued for two men aged between 30 and 40 on suspicion of kidnapping, whom police said had a connection to the siblings.

On Thursday evening, regional police found four adults with the two children in an apartment in central Malmö.

The adults were taken in for questioning under suspicion for complicity to kidnap, but they were released later in the night. Robert Loeffel was not able to say if any of the adults were still suspected of any crime.

One of the two original suspects, who is related to the children, turned himself in to a police station in southern Sweden on Thursday and was arrested. The other suspect is still at large but an arrest warrant remains in place.

 

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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