A fifteen-year-old boy was shot at 8.30am at Trångsundsskolan in Huddinge, southern Stockholm, with another 15-year-old arrested shortly afterwards on suspicion of attempted murder.

Huddinge municipality first reported in a press statement that the weapon used was an air rifle, although this information has now been taken down. According to sources close to Aftonbladet, a weapon with live ammunition was used, although police will not confirm this. 

Helena Boström Thomas, from the Stockholm Police, said that the victim did not appear to be seriously wounded. 

“The person was conscious and able to speak when we arrived at the crime scene and is now being cared for in hospital,” she said. “We are not looking for more perpetrators and no others have been wounded.” 

According to the school’s head teacher Kaj Majuri, the shooting was the culmination of a conflict between the two pupils. 

“I know that these pupils had a conflict a few years ago, but thought that we had solved it back then,” he said. “This came like a lightning strike from a clear blue sky.” 

Majuri said he had received no indication of gangland rivalries taking root in the school, and had as a result been taken by surprise. 

“It’s terrible that a pupil has been exposed to this and exposed at his own school,” he continued. 

Although Majuri decided to keep the school open for the day despite the shooting, many parents came and took their children home.

A pupil told the Aftonbladet newspaper that the shooting had been disturbing. 

“My body is shaking all over. You just don’t expect something like this to happen, but nowadays something like this can happen anywhere,” they told the newspaper. 

Police have cordoned off the crime scene and are interviewing witnesses and people who know the students affected. 

The municipality has sent psychologists and social workers to the school to help other students handle the shock and trauma of the attack. 

Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, and the country’s justice minister, Gunnar Strömmer, both reacted strongly to the news with Kristersson calling it “absolutely terrifying”. 

“School shootings aren’t something we associate with Seeden, but we have been recently seeing terrifying examples of extremely young people who are ready to commit extremely serious crimes,” he said. 

Strömmer said that such gun violence was “particularly serious when it happens at a school”.