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Malmö driving school hit by blast: ‘We want to know why this happened’

The owner of the Malmö driving school badly damaged by an explosion on Tuesday night has told The Local he has not been subject to any extortion requests and knows of no reason why his business would be a target.

Published: 24 April 2019 10:58 CEST
Malmö driving school hit by blast: 'We want to know why this happened'
The front doors to the driving school were completely destroyed. Photo: Richard Orange/The Local
“I've got no idea why. Perhaps you can tell me,” Jörgen Rodian, owner of Erikssons Trafikskola, told The Local, as he worked to tidy up the smashed door and windows at the school's entrance on Malmö's Nobeltorget Square. 
 
The powerful blast, which went off just before midnight, could be heard across the city, from the central station to seaside suburb of Limhamn. It blew away the front doors to the driving school, shattered windows and left a small crater in the concrete steps.
 
The steps to the school were badly damaged. Photo: Richard Orange/The Local
 
Nobody was injured in the explosion, which came just over a week after another blast just four doors down on Nobelvägen, the same Malmö street, left a 12-year-old girl with minor injuries. The garage hit is also used by Erikssons, as well as by residents of nearby apartments. 
 
Last November, two driving schools, in Persborg and in Norra grängesbergsgatan, were also hit by explosions.  
 
No arrests had been made by noon on Wednesday, and Nils Norling, press spokesman for the Malmö police, said it was too early to determine if the attacks were related. 
 
“We can't say that we see any immediate connection, but of course this is very close geographically and also close when you talk about time,” he said of the two recent attacks. “We have to analyze the small leftovers we have from the explosions to see if there's any connection there.” 
 
He said that it was possible that the attacks were linked to gangland extortion attempts. 
 
“We have quite a big problem in Malmö with extortion and we know that a lot of small business owners are being extorted,” he said. “We have to look very carefully to see if there might be extortion behind it.” 
 
Rodian told The Local that had never been contacted by anyone trying to extort payments.
 
“No, I've heard nothing, nothing at all,” he said. “What should I be worried about?” 
 
He said that he believed that it was a coincidence that three driving schools had been hit by such similar attacks, and added that did not think the two recent attacks had been targeted at his business. 
 
He pointed out that someone also appeared to have tried to break down the door of the hairdressers next door to him. 

 
Inside the driving school on Wednesday, pupils and instructors were continuing with their lessons as normal. 
 
“We employees and our students also want to know why this has happened,” Per Nilsson, one of the instructors, told The Local. “It's very strange.” 

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CRIME

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

Several masked men, described by anti-racism magazine Expo as "a group of Nazis" carried out the attack at an event organised by the Left Party and Green Party. Here's what we know so far.

Published: 25 April 2024 09:35 CEST
Updated: 25 April 2024 12:16 CEST
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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