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Four men injured in shooting northwest of Stockholm

Four men were injured in a shooting in Tensta, a suburb of northwest Stockholm, in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Published: 7 June 2018 08:35 CEST

Four men injured in shooting northwest of Stockholm

File photo of the Tensta suburb. Photo: Janerik Henriksson / TT

Police have opened an investigation into attempted murder and bodily harm.

“No one has been arrested currently, but there's intensive work going on and we're talking to witnesses,” said Åsa Wallentin, a police spokesperson.

Police received calls about a suspected shooting at around 00:30 am on Thursday, and when they arrived at the scene, close to Nydalsparken and Tensta allé, they found three people with gunshot wounds. Police haven't shared information about the severity of the injuries, other than to say that the injuries were all to the lower body, and that all three were conscious and responsive.

“A fourth person had been taken to hospital by a member of the public,” Wallentin said. The other three were also taken to hospital after being found by police.

IN FIGURES: 2017's shootings in Sweden

One of the victims is believed to have been a passerby, and was standing on a bridge around 100 metres away from where shots were fired. He received a surface wound to the leg, and in his case the charge is of bodily harm rather than attempted murder.

The area was cordoned off overnight as police carried out examinations of the crime scene.

Figures from 2017 showed that there were 306 confirmed shooting incidents during the year, many of them connected to local gangs, resulting in 41 deaths and 135 instances of injury.

The incident on Thursday was at least the third instance of gun crime in Tensta so far in 2018. According to Expressen, two men were injured in separate shootings in the area in March and April.

As The Local has previously reported, official figures show that while deadly violence has decreased in Sweden compared to the 1990s, the number of gun deaths appears to be on the rise.

IN DEPTH: What it's like working on the front line in Stockholm's vulnerable suburbs

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Where are the new 'specially vulnerable areas' in Sweden's cities?

Four new districts have joined the Sweden’s National Police’s list of “specially vulnerable areas”, “risk areas” and “vulnerable areas”, six have left the list entirely, three have been downgraded from the “specially vulnerable” category and one has joined it.

In total, Sweden has 59 districts classed as troubled in some way, which is two fewer than in 2021, the last time the list was updated.

“The clearest trend that we see happening is a stagnation,” the police wrote in its biannual update on the areas.

“The number of areas judged to be vulnerable has stayed stable through the years. Compared to 2022, three-quarters of the areas have developed in a negative direction or been unchanged, while the rest have had a positive development.”

The police define an “especially vulnerable area” as being “characterized by social issues and a criminal presence which has led to a widespread disinclination to participate in the judicial process and difficulties for the police to fulfil their mission”.

The “vulnerable” category is defined as “a geographically defined area characterized by a low socio-economic status where criminals have an impact on the local community”.

“Risk areas” sit somewhere in between the two categories.

Seved in Malmö has been removed from the list of “specially vulnerable areas”. This picture shows a street in Seved cordoned off after an attempted murder in 2022. Photo: Andreas Hillergren/TT

Which areas have improved?

Biskopsgården, Gottsunda and Södra Sofielund (Seved), have been downgraded from “specially vulnerable” to “risk area”, while Karlsund in Landskrona has been downgraded from being a “risk area” to just a “vulnerable area”.

Police said that these reevaluations had generally followed “changes in the level of open drug-dealing, threats, violence and abuse of police personnel, falls in violent crime, or changes in the criminal groups, for example following the detention of leading criminals.

Six areas, Älvsjö/Solberga, Östberga, Edsberg and Termovägen in Stockholm, Lagersberg in Eskilstuna, and Charlottesborg in Kristianstad, have left the list of troubled areas entirely.

Police said that these areas had left the list because they had seen “a positive development for a considerable length of time”, which was judged to be “stable”.

“Local police officers now describe these areas in the same way as they describe other non-vulnerable areas,” the report said. “Violent crime and open drug dealing has reduced at the same time as police can operate in the area without any problems.”

Three specially vulnerable areas, Rinkeby/Tensta and Husby in Stockholm, and Hjällbo in Gothenburg, were judged to have improved, but not to the extent that a change in category was warranted.

Which areas have got worse?

Hovsjö in Södertälje, outside Stockholm, was the only new area to join the “especially vulnerable” list.

Saltskog, also in Södertälje, joined the “vulnerable” list for the first time, as did Hagalund in Stockholm, Årby in Eskilstuna and Hageby in Norrköping.

Police judged that the situation in Rosengård, Malmö, Fittja in Stockholm and Hässleholmen in Borås had deteriorated, with the three areas still in the “specially vulnerable category”.

The situation had also deteriorated in Tureborg in Stockholm, but not to the extent that it needed to be upgraded from “risk area” to “specially vulnerable area”.

Of the areas which already classed as “vulnerable” in 2021, only Jordbro in Nynäshamn and Skogås, Storvreten and Vårberg in Stockholm had moved in a negative direction.

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