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CRIME

Father bites son’s finger off in New Year’s drama

A man in western Sweden has been arrested on suspicion of biting his son's finger off while in Malmö two prisoners managed to escape a correctional facility on an eventful New Year's Eve for the police.

Published: 1 January 2014 10:56 CET
Father bites son's finger off in New Year's drama
Fireworks ring in 2014 at Malmö's Turning Torso. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

The authorities had described the countdown to 2014 as initially quiet but as the clocks edged closer towards midnight there were reports of trouble and fires across the country. 

In Kristinehamn on Sweden's west coast a 50-year-old man was arrested following a domestic incident in which his adult son's finger was apparently bitten off.

"It was a fight that took place in the home. I don't know what it is that sparked off this incident," Ronny Brattström of the Värmland police told Aftonbladet.

Officers arrived on the scene at 3:30 in the morning where the father was arrested on suspicion of assault. His adult son was taken to hospital but the extent of his injuries remains unknown.

Down south in Malmö two prisoners broke free from a correctional facility in Fosie. The alarm was raised just after midnight and a police search party was sent out to retrieve the prisoners without success.

Correction facility authorities said that the men were not considered dangerous but described their escape as a "failure."

"This is the first escape in a long time from Fosie," Birgitta Nilsson who works at the facility told Expressen.

It's understood that the men made their escape by smashing a window and police later found a burnt our car at the Öresund Bridge. Both men had previously been convicted for robberies and weren't residents of Skåne with police suggesting they had likely fled to Denmark.

Also in Skåne a man suffered minor injuries after a rocket was set off from a balcony in Helsingborg which started a fire that spread to three other balconies and subsequently destroyed an entire apartment.

In Gothenburg police reported a number of fights and incidents of assault. A man was taken to hospital after being stabbed in the shoulder in the city centre while three knife wielding thieves robbed a corner shop.

"During the night we had a lot of drunkenness, assaults and fights but nothing astounding or some major bodily injuries," Susanne Arvidsson of the Gothenburg police told the TT news agency.

In the capital there were no serious disturbances reported with police saying that it was a relatively normal New Year's Eve.

"99 out of 100 cases are alcohol related," Eva Nilsson of the Stockholm police told TT.  

The Local/pr 

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RUSSIA AND SWEDEN

Swedish rail derailments could be linked to ‘Russian-backed sabotage’

European intelligence services are warning that Russia is plotting violent acts of sabotage in their countries in a concerted effort to destabilise the continent, including covert bombings, arson and attacks on infrastructure, the UK newspaper the Financial Times (FT) has claimed.

Published: 6 May 2024 14:12 CEST
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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