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CRIME

One held after explosion in central Stockholm

One person is being held in connection with a blast in central Stockholm last week, police said as an explosion shook another Swedish town on Wednesday morning.

One held after explosion in central Stockholm
An explosion in Stockholm's Östermalm district last week. Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT

Nobody received more than very minor injuries in the explosion on the second floor of an apartment building in the town of Norrköping at 6am on Wednesday, but two apartments were significantly damaged.

“There has been some kind of detonation. We can confirm that despite not yet having carried out the forensic examination of the scene,” police spokesperson Thomas Agnevik told Swedish news agency TT early in the morning.

Police spent the morning scouring the scene for evidence and collecting witness statements.

According to unconfirmed reports in the Aftonbladet newspaper, the target was a senior member of motorcycle gang No Surrender. The organization was also the suspected target of several other attacks in the area in the past year – including one of the biggest explosions in Sweden in decades.


Police at the scene of the explosion in the Hageby area of Norrköping. Photo: Magnus Andersson/TT

There were no immediate reports of connections to recent explosions in the Swedish capital which have been dominating headlines this week – one in the Husby suburb on Tuesday and another in the upmarket district Östermalm in central Stockholm on January 13th.

However, police said they were nevertheless continuing to look into possible connections with these and other blasts, as part of Operation Hoarfrost, an ongoing national task force investigating violent crime in Sweden.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, Stockholm police said one person was in custody in connection with the blast on Gyllenstiernsgatan in Östermalm last week.

“The investigation continues at full strength,” read a police statement, which urged anyone with information to get in touch.

The explosion, which damaged windows and cars and could be heard several kilometres away, was described as “one of the most powerful explosions” in the capital. Nobody was injured in the blast.

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CRIME

Three injured in suspected knife attack in central Sweden

At least three people have been injured in a suspected knife attack which took place in broad daylight in the centre of Västerås in central Sweden on Friday afternoon.

Three injured in suspected knife attack in central Sweden

Police were called to the scene at shortly before 1.30pm on Friday after several women who Swedish police described as “elderly” were found injured with stab wounds. 

The man suspected of attacking the three women, who is reportedly in his late 20s, was later shot by police. According to Region Västmanland he is “seriously injured”.

“They have been injured with a sharp object but whether it is a knife or something else, we do not know right now,” Tobias Ahlén-Svalbro, a spokesperson from the local police told Sweden’s public broadcaster SVT. 

The three women have been taken to hospital, with one, in her 70s, described as having serious injuries. The others’ injuries are less severe.

“We are investigating two crime scenes,” Ahlén-Svalbro said. “As far as I understand the situation, two of them were injured in one area and the other somewhere else, but both areas are in central Västerås.”

The police have opened an investigation into aggravated assault, he added.

“We have already received several witness statements and would like to hear from any other witnesses who have seen or heard something.”

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