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11 held after suspected biker gang shootout wounds 8 in Sweden

Eleven men were being held on Monday morning after at least eight people were injured in a shooting in Mölnlycke.

Published: 5 November 2018 08:29 CET

11 held after suspected biker gang shootout wounds 8 in Sweden

Police at the scene of the shooting. Photo: Adam Ihse/TT

Several of the people injured are said to be part of motorcycle gang Hells Angels, reports Swedish news agency TT, although the prosecutor declined to confirm which groups were involved.

“The incident appears to have been sparked by a conflict, which either arose during the course of the evening or existed previously, between two different groups – one with links to motorcycle gangs and the other with local connections,” Sweden's prosecution authority said in a statement.

Seven people were taken to hospital in Gothenburg after the shootout on Saturday evening.

Some had gunshot wounds while others had been stabbed or assaulted. By Sunday evening one had been able to leave hospital, five were in stable condition and a seventh remained seriously injured. An eighth person believed to be linked to the incident sought care at a hospital in Skaraborg, writes TT.

The prosecutor has until Wednesday to decide whether to ask court to have the 11 men remanded in custody. They are aged between 25 and 50 and suspected on reasonable grounds of attempted murder and aggravated assault. Thirteen people were initially held. Of those, one had not yet been questioned by Sunday evening and another has been released.

Motorcycle gangs Hells Angels and Bandidos were involved in several violent conflicts in the 1990s, but since then such incidents have been less common in Sweden.

A forensic examination of the scene of the shooting, which took place at a party venue according to local media, was still ongoing on Sunday evening. The area, around 500 metres from the bus and railway station in Mölnlycke and home to a number of small businesses, was cordoned off.

Mölnlycke is located a couple of kilometres south-east of Gothenburg in western Sweden.

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Financial Times links Swedish rail derailments 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 writes 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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