Swedish police are investigating whether an 18-year-old man who attacked students at a high school with a sword on Friday, killing one, was involved in online communities promoting school violence, a police source said.
Police are investigating whether a TikTok account that posted a picture of a sword 20 minutes before the assault belonged to the suspect, the source said.
The Dagens Nyheter reported that the image appeared to have been taken in a restroom at the school.
Photo: EPA
Before it was taken down on Friday, the month-old account contained videos that referred to two episodes of mass violence in Sweden and to Norwegian far-right mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik. One of the videos referenced a 2015 attack in which a masked swordsman killed a teaching assistant and two boys at a school in Trollhattan, Sweden, before being shot dead by police.
“The investigators are looking into various online communities which might have egged on the suspect to carry out the attack,” the police source said.
Police revealed that a 17-year-old student was the fatal victim of the attack at Brinell School in Fagersta, where flowers and candles were left outside as Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and opposition leader Magdalena Andersson arrived on Saturday morning to honor the dead student and three wounded victims.
The 18-year-old attacker entered the school on Friday afternoon — just days after the school in the town of 13,000 people had returned from its summer break. He has since been detained by police.
“The person killed in this incident is a young 17-year-old female. Her family has been informed,” police wrote on their Web site without giving any other identity details.
“It’s terrible to think that someone you sat at the same table with, someone you talked to, is suddenly dead,” Minnea, a Brinell student who also went to honor the victims on Saturday, told Sveriges Television.
Several party leaders on Saturday canceled planned speeches, pausing campaigning ahead of the Sept. 13 election.
“What should never happen has happened again,” Kristersson told reporters in Fagersta.
“Our thoughts go first and foremost to the families who have been incredibly hard hit by this,” he said.
Sweden’s worst mass shooting occurred in February last year at a school in the south-central city of Orebro, when a shooter killed 10 people before turning the gun on himself.
On Saturday, the police clarified that the suspect in the Fagersta attack had not been shot, contrary to what they had said on Friday.
“Service weapons were used, but the perpetrator has not been injured in connection with the arrest, and has not been in need of medical attention,” a police spokesperson told the Aftonbladet daily.
Prosecutors ordered the man’s detention on suspicion of murder and several counts of attempted murder.
“The investigation is at an intense stage. We are conducting interrogations and gathering information, but I cannot go into specifics,” prosecutor Ann-Sofie Trossing said.
Japan has started its first nationwide survey of animal cafes amid concerns over animal welfare, hygiene and public health, a government official said, bringing greater scrutiny to the popular but lightly regulated sector. The desktop survey, which began this month, will examine the number of facilities, the types of animals they house and the conditions they are held in, and how visitors interact with the animals. Exotic animal cafes, where visitors can interact with species ranging from otters to owls and marmots, have become popular attractions for Japanese and foreign tourists. However, researchers say some facilities keep threatened species, raising
Several areas of Thailand’s capital city Bangkok were inundated by continuous rain from Thursday afternoon to yesterday morning that has disrupted traffic and forced some residents to evacuate. Major canals in Bangkok filled with accumulated rainfall exceeding 20cm, officials said yesterday. Floodwaters spread across the city, particularly in the central and eastern parts, blocking roads and stopping traffic. The Thai Meteorological Department warned that the heavy rain would continue in most parts of the country through today, citing a strong low-pressure system over the central region and strengthening southwest monsoon conditions. More than 84,000 people in 21 provinces nationwide were
Yemen’s Saudi-led coalition early yesterday said it had intercepted two ballistic missiles and two drones launched by the Iran-backed Houthis toward the kingdom. The coalition said in posts on social media that the missiles were headed towards Khamis Mushait and the drones toward the capital, Riyadh, adding that it was monitoring the missile threat and drones launched at the kingdom, without providing further details. The Saudi Civil Defense had sent alerts overnight for Khamis Mushait and Abha, but not for Riyadh. The Houthis, who control the most populous parts of Yemen and much of the north, have been launching attacks
OLD WOUNDS: Protestant marchers seized on an overturned injunction to stage a march, which drew thousands of counterprotesters to block the road in Portadown UK leaders called for calm as a tense standoff with residents seeking to halt a pro-British Protestant march through a primarily Catholic area stretched into the night on Sunday, in one of the worst crises for Northern Ireland in the past few years. The tensions were triggered after a Belfast appeal court overturned a High Court injunction in the early hours of Sunday to clear the march by the Orange Order to go ahead for the first time since 1997. The Parades Commission, Northern Ireland’s independent body regulating contentious processions, had authorized 35 Orangemen to march silently along Garvaghy Road in Portadown,
RSS