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CRIME

Children kidnapped in southern Sweden found safe and well

Two children who were kidnapped close to their school in southern Sweden on Wednesday were found safe and well on Thursday evening.

Published: 8 December 2017 13:55 CET
Children kidnapped in southern Sweden found safe and well
The children were found in an apartment in central Malmö. File photo: Emil Langvad / TT .

The children, two siblings both aged under 15, had last been seen close to their school outside Emmaboda in Småland, southern Sweden, on Wednesday afternoon.

Police suspect that the plan had been to drive the children to a different country, and had carried out checks on vehicles crossing the Öresund Bridge to Denmark.

“We have a feeling for what was behind [the kidnapping], but we can't make that public,” police spokesperson Robert Loeffel told TT.

Witnesses told police the children had been forced to get into a car, and a large-scale police operation got underway to find the siblings.

A widespread police search looked for the children, though police said there was no further danger to other children. Arrest warrants were issued for two men aged between 30 and 40 on suspicion of kidnapping, whom police said had a connection to the siblings.

On Thursday evening, regional police found four adults with the two children in an apartment in central Malmö.

The adults were taken in for questioning under suspicion for complicity to kidnap, but they were released later in the night. Robert Loeffel was not able to say if any of the adults were still suspected of any crime.

One of the two original suspects, who is related to the children, turned himself in to a police station in southern Sweden on Thursday and was arrested. The other suspect is still at large but an arrest warrant remains in place.

 

POLITICS

Over a thousand people join protest against Stockholm attack

Over a thousand people joined a demonstration in Gubbängen, southern Stockholm, on Saturday, protesting Wednesday's attack by far-right extremists on a lecture organised by the Left and Green parties.

Published: 27 April 2024 15:36 CEST
Over a thousand people join protest against Stockholm attack

The demonstration, which was organised by the Left Party and the Green Party together with Expo, an anti-extremist magazine, was held outside the Moment theatre, where masked assailants attacked a lecture organised by the two parties on Wednesday. 

In the attack, the assailants – described as Nazis by Expo – let off smoke grenades and assaulted several people, three of whom were hospitalised. 

“Let’s say it how it is: this was a terror attack and that is something we can never accept,” said Amanda Lind, who is expected to be voted in as the joint leader of the Green Party on Sunday. 

She said that those who had attended the lecture had hoped to swap ideas about how to combat racism. 

“Instead they had to experience smoke bombs, assault and were forced to think ‘have they got weapons’?. The goal of this attack was to use violence to generate fear and silence people,” she said.  

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

More than a thousand people gathered to protest the attack on a theatre in Gubbängen, Stockholm. Photo: Oscar Olsson/TT

Nooshi Dadgostar, leader of the Left Party, said that that society needed to stand up against this type of extreme-right violence. 

“We’re here today to show that which should be obvious: we will not give up, we will stand up for ourselves, and we shall never be silenced by racist violence,” said said.

Sofia Zwahlen, one of the protesters at the demonstration, told the DN newspaper that it felt positive that so many had turned up to show their opposition to the attacks. 

“It feels extremely good that there’s been this reaction, that we are coming together. I’m always a little worried about going to this sort of demonstration. But this feels safe.”

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