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Armed robbers hit two banks in western Sweden

Two banks were robbed on Monday morning in Charlottenberg, in northern Värmland, not far from the Norwegian border.

Published: 19 May 2008 12:19 CEST

Armed robbers hit two banks in western Sweden

The robbers opened fire with automatic weapons both inside and outside the bank branches.

Authorities received a call at 9:05am Monday morning after the thieves had entered a Nordea bank branch.

Shortly thereafter the sound of gunfire was heard coming from the bank.

One witness told the TT news agency that she had seen five robbers, and that three of them left the Nordea branch and drove a car back toward the offices of the Westra Wermlands Sparbank.

“They broke into both banks,” said the witness.

The witness also saw how the bandits pushed people out of the way on the street, pointed their weapons toward onlookers, and then fired their guns up in the air. She also heard explosions caused by the robbers’ blasting inside the bank.

“No one was physically injured,” said police spokesperson Patrick Danielsson to the TT news agency.

It remains unclear whether or not the robbers made away with any loot and if so how much they may have taken.

After the robberies, the gang disappeared in a black BMW driving east toward Gräsmark, where the vehicle was also seen.

There are also reports that the car has made way to Norway.

“Both the customs office at the border and the Norwegian police have been notified and are on the lookout for the robbers,” said Danielson.

The theft is one of a number directed toward banks and cash transport services near Sweden’s border with Norway.

The region is thought to attract criminals in part due to the high volume of cross-border trade, and in part because it is often a long distance to a large police station.

'Very little debate' on consequences of Sweden's crime and migration clampdown

The Liberties Rule of Law report shows Sweden backsliding across more areas than any other of the 19 European Union member states monitored, fuelling concerns that the country risks breaching its international human rights obligations, the report says.

“We’ve seen this regression in other countries for a number of years, such as Poland and Hungary, but now we see it also in countries like Sweden,” says John Stauffer, legal director of the human rights organisation Civil Rights Defenders, which co-authored the Swedish section of the report.

The report, compiled by independent civil liberties groups, examines six common challenges facing European Union member states.

Sweden is shown to be regressing in five of these areas: the justice system, media environment, checks and balances, enabling framework for civil society and systemic human rights issues.

The only area where Sweden has not regressed since 2022 is in its anti-corruption framework, where there has been no movement in either a positive or negative direction.

Source: Liberties Rule of Law report

As politicians scramble to combat an escalation in gang crime, laws are being rushed through with too little consideration for basic rights, according to Civil Rights Defenders.

Stauffer cites Sweden’s new stop-and-search zones as a case in point. From April 25th, police in Sweden can temporarily declare any area a “security zone” if there is deemed to be a risk of shootings or explosive attacks stemming from gang conflicts.

Once an area has received this designation, police will be able to search people and cars in the area without any concrete suspicion.

“This is definitely a piece of legislation where we see that it’s problematic from a human rights perspective,” says Stauffer, adding that it “will result in ethnic profiling and discrimination”.

Civil Rights Defenders sought to prevent the new law and will try to challenge it in the courts once it comes into force, Stauffer tells The Local in an interview for the Sweden in Focus Extra podcast.

He also notes that victims of racial discrimination at the hands of the Swedish authorities had very little chance of getting a fair hearing as actions by the police or judiciary are “not even covered by the Discrimination Act”.

READ ALSO: ‘Civil rights groups in Sweden can fight this government’s repressive proposals’

Stauffer also expresses concerns that an ongoing migration clampdown risks splitting Sweden into a sort of A and B team, where “the government limits access to rights based on your legal basis for being in the country”.

The report says the government’s migration policies take a “divisive ‘us vs them’ approach, which threatens to increase rather than reduce existing social inequalities and exclude certain groups from becoming part of society”.

Proposals such as the introduction of a requirement for civil servants to report undocumented migrants to the authorities would increase societal mistrust and ultimately weaken the rule of law in Sweden, the report says.

The lack of opposition to the kind of surveillance measures that might previously have sparked an outcry is a major concern, says Stauffer.

Politicians’ consistent depiction of Sweden as a country in crisis “affects the public and creates support for these harsh measures”, says Stauffer. “And there is very little talk and debate about the negative consequences.”

Hear John Stauffer from Civil Rights Defender discuss the Liberties Rule of Law report in the The Local’s Sweden in Focus Extra podcast for Membership+ subscribers.

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