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Girl made up story about abduction

The ten-year-old girl who claimed she was kidnapped and then pushed into the water in central Stockholm has admitted she was lying.

Published: 28 February 2008 14:38 CET

Police no longer believe she was the victim of a crime.

“The girl was not abducted in Tensta and then taken to Stockholm as she originally alleged. Why she made the claim remains unclear. It could be the result of a family tragedy of some sort,” said prosecutor Henrik Söderman to news agency TT.

The girl said that she was kidnapped by an unknown man on February 4th near a school in the suburb of Tensta, just northwest of Stockholm.

The man then allegedly forced her on to the subway, eventually bringinr her to Stockholm City Hall, where he then pushed her into the cold waters of Riddarfjärden.

The girl was discovered in the water by two men who had parked their car near the quay. They helped her out and called an ambulance.

Police have examined images from several security cameras in the subway and have established that the girl rode into the city alone.

“There is no man with the girl in the pictures. Her account doesn’t add up. But we don’t know how she ended up in the water,” said Söderman.

The girl was presented with the security camera analysis and then reminded of her own account of events, but was unable to answer police as to why she was alone in the pictures.

The prosecutor still hasn’t formally closed the investigation, which is looking into suspicions of kidnapping and attempted murder.

Swedish rail derailments could be linked to 'Russian-backed sabotage'

The report comes just days after prosecutors arrested two German-Russian men on suspicion of spying for Russia and planning attacks in Germany to undermine military support for Ukraine. There have been similar alleged incidents in several other European countries.

FT also claims that security services in Sweden suspect that a series of recent railway derailments may be acts of state-backed sabotage.

It doesn’t mention any specific incidents, but late last year, a fully-loaded freight train derailed on the Malmbanan near Vassijaure in northern Sweden, damaging around 15 kilometres of the line.

Repairs began quickly, but state-owned Swedish mining company LKAB, which uses the line to transport iron ore was greatly affected, with losses of around 100 million kronor per day while the line was closed and a 3.8 million drop in operating profits for the last quarter of 2024.

It reopened on February 20th, but just five days later it derailed again in Vassijaure, this time along a shorter stretch.

Fredrik Hultgren-Friberg, press spokesperson at the Swedish Security Services (Säpo), reiterated to Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) what’s previously been said, that Säpo is collaborating with police on the Malmbanan investigation.

“Säpo has an ongoing, routine collaboration with the police force on a number of cases, primarily when it cannot be ruled out that a foreign power is involved. One of those collaborations is on the investigation around Malmbanan,” he said.

Hultgren-Friberg declined to comment on the FT’s reports that Russia is planning attacks on European infrastructure.

“What I can confirm is that Russia is the largest single threat to Sweden,” he told SvD. “We’ve said that for a while. What we can see is more aggressive, risky behaviour from Russia in their illegal actions and spying in Sweden.”

Swedish police and Säpo have previously confirmed that they are investigating the Malmbanan incidents as possible sabotage, which doesn’t automatically mean that they actively suspect sabotage, but is also a routine procedure to facilitate the probe.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told Swedish news agency TT that the reports in FT did not come as a surprise to him.

“Russia is prepared to go further and carry out operations and sabotage on other countries’ territory,” he said.

But when asked whether such acts of sabotage had taken place in Sweden, he said that wasn’t the case.

“We haven’t seen any such signs for now, but we are on our toes. Other countries have seen things where they know or believe that there are such connections,” Kristersson said.

In late April, LKAB said it was so badly affected by the derailments that it may need to close temporarily as it’s not able to get stock to customers quickly enough, so its warehouses are nearing capacity.

“It’s a real worry,” LKAB’s CEO Jan Moström told TT. “If we can’t lower our stock then we’re going to have to start dialling down production capacity.”

Moström believes that this could affect up to 600 people – half being LKAB employees and the other half being independent contractors.

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