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Malmö sees lowest crime stats in 17 years: new figures

With recent high-profile shootings, you'd think Malmö was in the middle of a crime wave. But according to preliminary official statistics, 2018 saw the lowest number of crimes reported in the city in 17 years.

Published: 18 January 2019 14:35 CET
Updated: 18 January 2019 17:33 CET

Malmö sees lowest crime stats in 17 years: new figures

Police cordon off an area of Nydala after a fight broke out among teenage youths. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

According to Sweden's crime statistics agency Brå, the number of crimes reported in Malmö dropped more than 10 percent in 2018 to 53,192, a level last seen in 2001, when there were 75,000 fewer people living in the city.

“We have been pushing on with our reorganization and had the opportunity to work more on crime prevention,” Andy Roberts, police chief for northern Malmö, told the Sydsvenskan newspaper.

But he said he would prefer not to give further comment until he was sure that the impressive looking preliminary statistics were accurate. “We need to sit down and analyze all this to make sure that there isn't something wrong with the statistics,” he said.

READ ALSO: How reported crime rates changed in Sweden in 2018

According to Brå's annual statistics, the number of attempted murders reported in Malmö dropped by nearly half, from 100 in 2017 to 55 in 2018, the lowest number since 2013.

The number of reported robberies also dropped significantly, falling by nearly 14 percent to 20,468 compared to last year, and by 40 percent compared to 1998.

The only real bad news in the statistics was in the number of reported rapes, which increased by 10 percent to 230, the highest number since 1996, the earliest year in Brå's database.

Gothenburg, Sweden's second city, also saw the number of crimes reported drop, with six percent fewer this year than last year, bringing crime in the city to its lowest level since 1999.

Stockholm, Sweden's capital, saw the number of reported crimes go in the other direction, however, up nearly four percent to 207,781.

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EXPLAINED: What we know about the attack on a Swedish anti-fascist meeting

What happened?

Several masked men burst into a Stockholm theatre on Wednesday night and set off smoke bombs during an anti-fascism event, according to police and participants.

Around 50 people were taking part in the event at the Moment theatre in Gubbängen, a southern suburb of the Swedish capital, organised by the Left Party and the Green Party.

“Three people were taken by ambulance to hospital,” the police said on its website, shortly after the attack.

According to Swedish media, one person was physically assaulted and two had paint sprayed in their faces.

“The Nazis attacked visitors using physical violence, with pepper spray, and vandalised the venue before throwing in some kind of smoke grenade which filled the foyer with smoke,” Expo wrote on its website.

The magazine’s head of education Klara Ljungberg was at the event in order to hold a lecture at the invitation of the two political parties.

What was the meeting about?

According to the Left Party’s press officer, the event was “a meeting about growing fascism”.

Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar described the event to public broadcaster SVT as an “open event, for equality among individuals”.

As well as Ljungberg from Expo, panelists at the event included anti-fascist activist Mathias Wåg, who also writes for Swedish centre-left tabloid Aftonbladet.

“They were determined and went straight for me,” Wåg told Expo just after the attack. “I received a few blows but nothing that caused serious damage.”

“I was invited to be on a panel in order to discuss anti-fascism with representatives from the Left Party and the Green Party,” he told the magazine. “I didn’t know this was going to happen, but there’s obviously a risk when Expo and I are in the same place.”

What has the reaction been like?

All of Sweden’s parties across the political spectrum have denounced the attack, with Dadgostar describing it as a “threat to our democracy” when TT newswire interviewed her at the theatre a few hours after the attack occurred.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, from the conservative Moderates, called the attack “abhorrent”.

The Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals are currently in government with the support of the far-right Sweden Democrats, while the Social Democrats, Left Party, Centre Party and Green Party are in opposition.

“It is appalling news that a meeting hosted by the Left Party has been stormed,” Kristersson told TT. “I have reached out to Nooshi Dadgostar and expressed my deepest support. This type of abhorrent action has no place in our free and open society.”

“Right-wing extremists want to scare us into silence,” Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson wrote on X. “They will never be allowed to succeed.”

“The attack by right-wing extremists at a political meeting is a direct attack on our democracy and freedom of speech,” Green Party co-leader Daniel Helldén wrote on X. “My thoughts are with those who were affected this evening.”

Sweden Democrat party leader Jimmie Åkesson wrote in an email to TT that “political violence is terrible, in all its forms, and does not belong in Sweden.”

“All democratic forces must stand in complete solidarity against all kinds of politically motivated violence,” he continued.

His party has previously admitted to being founded by people from “fascist movement” New Swedish Movement, skinheads, and people with “various types of neo-Nazi contact”.

“It is an attack not only on the Left Party, Green Party and the Expo Foundation, but also on our entire democratic society,” Centre Party leader Muharrem Demirok, who referred to the attackers as “Nazis”, wrote on social media. “Those affected have all my support.”

Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch and Liberal leader Johan Pehrson both referred to the attackers as “anti-democratic forces”.

“It is never acceptable for a political meeting to be stormed by anti-democratic forces,” Busch wrote. “There is no place for this in our society.”

“Anti-democratic forces like this represent a serious threat to our democracy and must be met with society’s hardest iron fist,” Pehrson said.

What about the attackers? Has anyone been arrested?

Not yet. The police had not made any arrests at the time of writing on Thursday morning.

According to TT, police did not want to comment on who could be behind the attack.

It is currently being investigated as a violation of the Flammable and Explosive Goods Act, assault, causing danger to others and disturbing public order.

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