“Common strategies against organized crime are needed. Nobody should have to fear shootings where they live or organized crime,” he said. “Criminals should be worried and sleep poorly at night, not the victims.”

The meeting followed a series of recent incidents in Stockholm believed to be linked to gang crime, which in turn came amid rising concern over shootings in the city of Malmö.

Interior Minister Anders Ygeman, who also spoke at the press conference, vowed that authorities would step up their crime fighting efforts in particularly vulnerable areas.

Asked if his centre-left coalition would allocate more financial resources to the police, Löfven said that he was looking at including it in the spring budget proposition, which is to be presented on April 18th.

Foreign Minister Margot Wallström, Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist and Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lövin were also called to the meeting on Thursday, along with representatives from the police and prosecutors, tax and debt collection agencies, and the Swedish Economic Crime Authority.

Although deadly violence in Sweden has gone down in the past couple of decades, the number of shootings related to what can loosely be defined as gang violence is up.