“There was an attempt to stop an ambulance travelling nearby and bottles were thrown,” police press spokesperson Thomas Johansson initially told the TT newswire on Thursday.
But Victor Pressfeldt, a journalist and doctoral student at the university, later wrote on X that he had contacted the ambulance service and the police press office, who both denied that bottles had been thrown at the ambulance and confirmed that the information was false.
Pressfeldt wrote it appeared to have started as a rumour that someone threw leaves at the ambulance, and then the story grew.
Police had given protesters until 6.30am to leave the Lundagård park, but around 30 protesters were still on the scene once the deadline had passed.
These protesters were later carried over by police to a nearby lawn outside the main university building, Universitetshuset.
Activists who remained in the area around the tent camp were shouting “Skåne hates the police,” TT reporters said.
A number of anonymous activists have accused the police of using excessive force.
“I’ve seen them carrying people, one person was screaming ‘I can’t breathe’,” a press spokesperson for the camp wrapped in a Palestinian flag told TT.
Johansson denied this, telling TT that one person had been arrested for violent resistance.
Police did not want to disclose the total number of people arrested in Lund, saying only that “around 40 people” had been taken into custody for identification.
“They are going to be reported for disobeying a police order,” Johansson said.
According to police, the cordon would remain in place until the university’s doctoral graduation ceremony, which is due to take place in the Lundagård park where protesters had been camping, is complete on Friday.
A cannon will fire a salute in the park as part of the doctoral graduation ceremony, which is one of the reasons the tent protesters have been asked to move.
Swedish police on Wednesday arrested three people and detained around 20 others at another university protest at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
This was not a tent protest, but rather protesters had gathered to demonstrate against Israel’s attacks on Gaza. The protest was timed to coincide with a visit to the university by Christian Democrat party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch.
“We can see all over the country that the demonstrations have now crossed a line,” Education Minister Mats Persson said on Thursday.
“I have full confidence in the way police have handled the situation.”
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