Swedish police are investigating a racially motivated gunman in the port city of Malmo following a series of attacks on immigrants, including the shooting of two women this week.
The police said on Friday they were looking for similarities between the latest incident and 17 earlier shootings of people from ethnic-minority backgrounds with no known ties to organized crime.
The attack on the two women, who were wounded after being hit through a kitchen window on Thursday night, has not yet been linked to the other incidents, but police have warned residents from ethnic minorities to take extra care when going out at night.
The investigation was sparked earlier this week after two black men were shot in the back while waiting for buses in separate incidents in Malmo, in the southwest of the country.
Police spokesman Borje Sjoholm said the same high-caliber handgun had been used to shoot a 28-year-old on Tuesday and a 47-year-old 10 days ago.
“In the past the shootings we’ve had have been linked to organized crime, but now we can’t find any connections so we are launching a different investigation,” she said. “The 15 unsolved crimes, the two men at the bus stops and yesterday’s shooting of the two women are not currently linked but are being investigated.”
The issue of gun crime, and particularly gang shootings, has been of growing concern in the city, but this is the first time police have suspected a racial motive.
They have warned ethnic minority residents to avoid quiet places such as bus stops and to take extra care, especially at night. Police said they were looking for a man aged between 20 and 40 who witnesses said they saw running away from some crime scenes.
Tahmoures Yassami, who leads the Iranian-Swedish Association in Malmo, told the Local, an English-language Web site, that many immigrant families were in shock.
“Many people are frightened at the moment, especially families who have children. I had a phone call just this morning from a mother who was concerned and asked what was happening,” he said. “We have said to our families to try to stay home in the evenings. We have asked our children to always have their mobile phones on, so we can reach them.”
Niklas Orrenius, a journalist on the local newspaper Sydsvenska Dagbladet, said the atmosphere in Malmo had markedly changed since the police announced their investigation. Although residents were worried about the attacks, there was a feeling of solidarity on the streets.
The government is believed to be taking the police investigation seriously, and Sweden’s new Minister for Integration Erik Ullenhag, speeded up a scheduled visit to the city. He described the situation as “acute,” but added that it was “too early to draw any political conclusions — but from the government point of view it’s important.”
Referring to the Rosengard, known locally as “the ghetto” and home to around 20,000 immigrants, he said it was important to show that it was not just a problem for that part of Malmo, “but for the whole of Sweden.”
The latest shooting revived memories of the terror experienced in the capital, Stockholm, in the 1990s, when serial sniper John Ausonius shot 11 people, killing one. Ausonius was dubbed the “Laser Man” because he used a rifle equipped with laser sight. He is still serving a life sentence.
The Malmo shootings also highlights a growing undercurrent of racial tension in Sweden after the rightwing Sweden Democrats made gains in the elections last month on an anti-immigration platform. Although Ausonius also came to light after another rightwing party, the New Democracy, was elected to the Riksdag in 1991, the SD have been a presence in regional politics for some time, though the center-left still also holds the political majority in Malmo.
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