How bad could Swedish ‘child soldier’ crime spree become?

There have been signs this week of a concerning escalation of violent crimes committed by Swedish youths in Denmark.

According to police, young people from Sweden – typically aged 16-18 – are being recruited online by Danish criminal groups to carry out violent crimes in Denmark.

Police have held several youths on suspicion of a series of crimes, which have included several shootings as well as a hand grenade attack on a convenience store.

READ ALSO: ‘Swedish child soldiers’ involved in 25 criminal cases in Denmark this year

Investigators have not yet explicitly stated whether the suspected perpetrators were hired to carry out hits on targets as part of an ongoing gang conflict, and formal charges are yet to be pressed. Because of the ages of the suspects, they cannot be put in police arrest. Instead, they are placed in detention under other authorities.

“We have seen that criminals are looking on social media for people willing to commit serious crimes and that young Swedes unfortunately are agreeing to do so for payment,” senior police investigator Torben Svarrer, from the Danish police’s NSK unit for serious crimes, told Sweden’s TT newswire last week.

“They are simply getting a large amount of money to carry out violent crime including murder. What we are seeing now is attempted murders. But in Sweden there have been murders and some of the same channels have been used,” he also told Danish broadcaster DR.

Those words may have been prescient.

On Thursday evening, A 43-year-old man died after being shot at Hans Tavsens Gade in Copenhagen neighbourhood Nørrebro.

Police said one shooter was involved and that they “cannot rule out that [the shooting] has a relation to the ongoing conflict involving Sweden”.

“It’s too early for us to commit to anything, but we’re looking in that direction,” senior investigator Lasse Michelsen told Ritzau.

That came after Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard called the suspected Swedish teen gunmen “child soldiers” after meeting with police representatives the same day.

Hummelgaard said the justice ministry could accommodate a request from the police to allow them to use methods such as facial recognition to fight the current wave of violent crimes being committed by Swedish teenagers.

On Friday afternoon, the minister announced additional border controls on the Øresund bridge crossing with Sweden — despite previously having ruled this out.

Spicy noodles back with a bang

You may recall a decision by the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration back in June to recall three different South Korean rameon noodle products, saying they were so hot they might cause “acute poisoning”.

The news went viral across the world, with some saying it was cause to retract Denmark’s “Viking card”.

But the decision has since been partially reversed, with the food administration having announced that two of the products, Buldak Spicy Noodles’ 2X Spicy & Hot Chicken and Hot Chicken Stew, could be reintroduced into the market.

A “new risk assessment” concluded that the two products are “not a health risk”, the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration.

The third product, 3X Spicy & Hot Chicken, is however still considered a health risk due to high levels of capsaicin, the active component of chilli peppers.

Buldak, the spicy noodle brand of Korean company Samyang Foods, seems encouraged by the decision and chose to celebrate it with a promotional event on a noodle-themed ferry cruise around Copenhagen Harbour on Thursday,

Why are there so many slugs?

If you have a garden or happen to have been in a forest, or simply near a piece of grass recently, you’ll probably have seen one of the biggest pests in Denmark this summer: the slug.

Slugs, which are called dræbersnegle (‘killer snails’) or skovsnegle (‘forest snails’) in Danish, have multiplied vociferously this year, helped by the wet conditions and relatively few natural predators (hedgehogs and certain types of duck) in their habitats.

Slugs are hermaphrodites and can produce up to 400 eggs per individual. They can also survive relatively high degrees of frost and drought.

The problem was neatly highlighted in this DR reel, in which it is described as a “slug apocalypse” (if you’re currently eating spicy noodles or anything else for that matter, finish before clicking).

Daring chefs and morning television shows have attempted to turn the endless supply of (free) slugs into a food source, by boiling them and eating them with sourdough bread and vegetables. You can look up such recipes here, but I think I’d much rather chance it with the health-hazard-hot noodles.