Sweden gun attack leaves three dead
GANG VIOLENCE
The shooting came a day before Uppsala holds the Valborg festival to mark the start of spring. While police sealed off the streets around the hair salon - and a drone flew overhead - they sought to reassure the huge number of visitors expected.
"People should not be afraid to come tomorrow," Klarin said.
"There are 100,000 to 150,000 people expected in Uppsala for Valborg tomorrow, and there are already a whole lot here today."
On Feb 4, the country was rocked by its worst mass shooting when 35-year-old Rickard Andersson entered the Campus Risbergska adult education centre in the city of Orebro and shot dead 10 people before turning the gun on himself.
But the Nordic country has struggled in recent years to rein in shootings and bombings linked to score-settling between rival gangs. Earlier this month, two people were killed in suspected gang violence in Gothenburg. A renowned rapper was shot dead in a gang battle in Gothenburg last year.
Perpetrators are often young teens who are hired as contract killers because they are under 15, the age of criminal responsibility in Sweden. The number of reported gang deaths fell in 2024 however.
In the country of 10.6 million people, 92 cases of deadly violence were recorded in 2024, 29 fewer than 2023, and the lowest level since 2014, according to official data.
There were 296 reported shooting cases in 2024, a 20 per cent decrease from the year before, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra).
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's centre-right minority government, which is backed in parliament by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, came to power in 2022 with a vow to get tough on crime.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
5 days ago
- Straits Times
Finland extends ban on migrants seeking asylum on Russia border
HELSINKI - Finland's parliament on Wednesday voted in favour of extending emergency legislation that allows the Nordic country to reject asylum applications from migrants on its closed eastern border with Russia and to send them back. Finland has kept all passenger crossing points closed along its 1,340-kilometre (833-mile) long eastern border with Russia since the end of 2023, after accusing Russia of an attempt to destabilise Finland by sending migrants from Africa and Asia to the border, an accusation Moscow has denied. In 2023, some 1,300 migrants arrived via Russia, prompting the government in 2024 to pass emergency legislation permitting it to reject migrants and their asylum applications, against EU rules and Finland's international commitments, for a period of one year. Finland's right-wing government had asked parliament to extend the validity of the emergency law by 1.5 years until the end of 2026, which parliament approved with 168 members in favour and 29 against on Wednesday. "Border law accomplished, just barely. Thanks to the large majority who thought of the best for the homeland," Finance Minister Riikka Purra of the ruling nationalist Finns Party wrote in a post. The government needed the support of 5/6 of lawmakers in the 200-strong parliament to pass the extension as an emergency law, a high bar reflecting the fundamental principles at stake. "Finland should be a state governed by the rule of law and respond to the actions of its neighbour in a corresponding manner, not by abandoning its own constitution and international obligations, in other words, by acting like Russia," chair Minja Koskela of opposition Left Alliance said in a statement ahead of the vote. The flow of migrants stopped after Finland closed down all official border crossing points, and in 2024 only eight people crossed the border illegally after January, interior ministry data showed. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
7 days ago
- Straits Times
NATO east flank backs Ukraine membership, Poland, Romania and Lithuania say
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics, Estonian President Alar Karis, Polish President Andrzej Duda, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Romanian President Nicusor Dan, Czech Republic's President Petr Pavel, Slovakia's President Peter Pellegrini, Bulgarian Defense Minister Atanas Zapryanov, Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, Iceland's Foreign Minister Katrin Gunnarsdottir and Hungarian Defence Minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky pose for a family picture during the NATO Bucharest Nine meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania June 2, 2025. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins VILNIUS - Nordic, Baltic and central European NATO members are committed to Ukrainian membership of the military alliance, the leaders of Poland, Romania and Lithuania said following a summit of the so-called B9 and Nordic countries on Monday. NATO allies declared their support for Ukraine's "irreversible path" towards membership at last year's Washington summit. But President Donald Trump has since said that prior U.S. support for Ukraine's NATO bid was a cause of the war and has further indicated that Ukraine will not get membership. Russian President Vladimir Putin's conditions for ending the war in Ukraine include a demand that Western leaders pledge in writing to stop enlarging NATO eastwards, and lift a chunk of sanctions on Russia, Reuters reported last week. Poland, Romania and Lithuania said on Monday, after a meeting of Nordic, Baltic and Eastern European leaders in the capital of Lithuania, that the region remains committed to the path towards Ukrainian NATO membership, and called for further pressure on Russia, including more sanctions. "We stand firm on Allied decision and commitment regarding Ukraine's irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership. Ukraine has the right to choose its own security arrangements and to decide its own future, free from outside interference," they said in a joint statement released on behalf of all meeting participants. The meeting, held ahead of a NATO summit at The Hague later this month, included Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Slovakia, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
26-05-2025
- Straits Times
Recent Ukraine attacks prove Russia not interested in peace, Denmark says
Recent Ukraine attacks prove Russia not interested in peace, Denmark says HELSINKI - Russia's attacks on Ukraine during the weekend proved that Moscow is not interested in peace, Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Monday. "During the day Putin talks about negotiations, then he bombs Ukraine during the night," Frederiksen told reporters at a meeting of Nordic leaders in Finland. Russia overnight unleashed what the Ukrainian air force described as Russia's largest drone attack of the war to date. Frederiksen said the Nordic leaders had agreed their countries would support Ukraine for as long as it takes, adding the support could mean military aid, investments in Ukraine's defence industry and cooperation with Ukrainian companies. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
