Swedish police are investigating a possible terror incident after a man on Wednesday stabbed and injured at least seven people in the city of Vetlanda.
A police statement early yesterday revised the number of injured in the attack to seven from eight, but did not give further details.
The suspect, who is in his 20s, was taken to a hospital after he was shot in the leg by police following the mid-afternoon attack in the southern city of 13,000 inhabitants.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Police said the man had used a “sharp weapon,” while local media reported that he had brandished a knife.
Police initially treated the incident as “attempted murder,” but later changed it in a statement to include a “suspected terrorist crime,” without giving further details.
Three of the people attacked were said to have suffered life-threatening injuries, while two others were in serious condition, according to information coming out of the hospital in Jonkoping, where they were being treated.
Speaking at a news conference, regional police chief Malena Grann later clarified that a preliminary investigation was still under the designation “attempted murder,” but details had emerged that meant they were also looking into “potential terror motives.”
“There are details in the investigation that have led us to investigate whether there was a terror motive,” Grann said, without giving details.
The police was working closely with the Swedish Security Service Grann added.
The suspect was a resident of the area and previously known to police, but in the past had only been suspected of “petty crimes.” Police did not specify if he was a Swedish citizen.
The extent of his injuries were also unknown, but police said they believed they would be able question him.
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven condemned the “horrific violence” in a statement published on Facebook.
“We face these despicable actions with the combined force of the community,” Lofven wrote.
“We are reminded of how frail our safe existence is,” Lofven added, encouraging people to keep the victims in their thoughts, as well as health workers and police tending to the wounded, and working to restore peace.
Swedish intelligence services consider the terrorist threat to be high. The Scandinavian country has been targeted twice by attacks in the past few years.
In December 2010, a man carried out a suicide bombing in the center of Stockholm. He died after only slightly injuring passersby.
In April 2017, an Uzbek asylum seeker mowed down pedestrians in Stockholm with a stolen truck, killing five people. He was sentenced to life in prison.
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