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CRIME

Plea for witnesses after 12-year-old girl shot dead in Sweden

Police are appealing for witnesses after a 12-year-old girl was killed in what Swedish media described as a drive-by shooting south of Stockholm.

Published: 3 August 2020 07:47 CEST
Plea for witnesses after 12-year-old girl shot dead in Sweden
Police scouring the scene for evidence. Photo: Naima Helén Jåma/TT

According to unconfirmed reports in several Swedish newspapers, the girl did not appear to have been the intended target.

The Expressen tabloid reported that she was hit by a stray bullet aimed at two men with alleged links to a criminal network, with shots fired at them from a car.

“I cannot confirm any such reports, but want to underline that we are in great need of witnesses and observations. It's only when we have that that we can say what happened. Let us determine whether or not they are relevant observations,” local police chief Carolina Paasikivi told the TT newswire.

Police were called to the shooting at 3.27am on Sunday at a petrol station in the Norsborg area of Botkyrka, south of Stockholm. The girl was taken to hospital, but later died from her injuries.

No arrests had been made by Monday morning, but several people were being questioned. Police did not elaborate on what forensic teams had found, but said they would analyse CCTV footage.

“We will investigate and do everything in our power to bring the people behind this terrible act to justice,” national police chief Anders Thornberg told TT.

“We will collect witness statements, forensic evidence and all material that could help us move the investigation forward. But how successful we are also depends on those who know anything about the incident coming forward and helping us solve the crime.”

Sweden launched a so-called “special national incident” in November 2019 to look into violent gang crime incidents, but the number of shootings increased in the first four months of 2020 compared to last year.

Fifteen people were killed in 98 shootings between January and April, according to police statistics released earlier this year. In the same period of 2019, there were 81 shootings with 15 people killed.

However, the number of fatal shootings has remained relatively unchanged compared to previous years. Nine people were killed in 76 shootings during the same four months in 2018, and the year before that a total of 16 people were killed in 99 shootings.

Member comments

  1. My question is what was a 12 year old girl doing out at 3.27 am on a Saturday night / Sunday morning? Where were her parents?

  2. @Marcus

    How on earth is that even relevant? People go wherever they want whenever they want in Sweden. My question is why on earth was she shot? Why on earth would anyone in their right mind have a weapon and point this weapon at a gas station in the middle of the night or early morning or any time at all?

  3. @seriously Gang related crime most likely. I think people used to go wherever they want whenever they wanted but times are changing now I’m afraid, the bubble people live in is slowly popping.

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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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