How Sweden's worst mass shooting unfolded at a small town school - and why police have ‘no clear motive' one week on

Independent

11-02-2025

'Mom, take care of yourself. And take care of my girl too,' said Salim Iskef.
Amid a cacophony of alarms, screams and gunfire, the 28-year-old uttered the final words to his fiancee and mother over the phone.
The Syrian Christian had fled Aleppo ten years prior, seeking a life of security in Sweden. Orebro was his new home, a quiet and historic city in central Sweden some 125 miles west of Stockholm, with a population of 126,000.
Last week he was among 10 killed when the suspected gunman, now officially named by the Swedish prosecutor as 35-year-old Rickard Andersson, carried out the worst gun massacre in the country's history. Wielding three guns and dressed in green military garb, he launched his deadly attack at adult education centre Risbergska School before he was found dead by police.
Sweden's immigrant communities have been left on edge following the attack, with Syrians and Bosnians among the victims.
However, one week on police have yet to formally name any of the victims or reveal any suspected motive.
Police did confirm on Friday that they had completed the identification of all the victims, although they did not release any names. Seven women and four men between 28 and 68 years of age died in the attack, including the suspect, police said in a statement.
Swedish media named father-of-two Bassam Al Sheleh, 48, as the second Syrian refugee killed. Elsa Teklay, 32, Camilla, 52, Eva-Lena, 54, Ali Mohammed Jafari, 31, and Aziza, 68 have also been named in Swedish outlets, some only with their first name.
A nationwide minute's silence was held at midday on Tuesday, with thousands gathering for an emotional commemoration ceremony in Orebro as Sweden mourns a rare tragedy. However, the families of the victims are still left wanting for answers.
The picture painted of Andersson is one of a social recluse with little-to-no contact with the outside world. A relative described Andersson as a 'loner' who had lost contact with his family.
Shortly before 12:30pm on Tuesday, the shooter entered with guns hidden in a guitar case before he changed into military-style clothes in the toilets, according to witness accounts to Swedish outlet Aftonbladet.
Two gunshots rang outside Maria Lahdo's classroom. When the third shot rang out, they knew something was wrong, and after one person froze in shock in the doorway, Maria dragged them out of the way and locked the door, she told Expressen.
'There was someone in the hallway who suddenly started pulling the door handle,' Maria recalled. 'It must have been him trying to get in. Several people had panic attacks, it was terrible.'
Fearing for their lives, some students and teachers were able to escape campus to a nearby pizza restaurant. 'I thought I was going to die. But I don't want to die,' Saddam Al Rahoumi, who heard gunshots as he followed dozens of people running out of the dining room, told TV4.
Mirna Essa describes the chilling moment someone pleaded for their life before they were apparently shot.
'We hear a woman saying, 'No, no, no,' three times,' she told Dagens Nyheter newspaper. 'After that we heard someone shooting. I did not know what was happening, I simply ran. It was chaos within a few seconds. It was like a movie. All you can think of is, 'Why?''
Others barricaded themselves in toilets and classrooms as chaos ensued outside.
Hellen Werme, a 35-year-old nursing student and mother-of-two, heard Andersson's footsteps outside the classroom where she was hiding with fellow students.
"Those were the worst hours of my life. I did not know if I would get shot there and then, or in 10 minutes. You simply waited," she told TV4. 'I never want to go back there.'
Elsewhere on the campus, first responders had reached a scene of chaos and blood.
Arriving five minutes after the emergency call, they entered an 'inferno ... dead people and injured people, screams and smoke," Orebro police chief Mr Wiren said.
Police believe they were shot at by Andersson. Clouded in smoke - which investigators say was caused by a pyrotechnic - and without the necessary breathing equipment, officers struggled to advance towards the shooter.
By the time a response team equipped with breathing gear had arrived, the suspect was lost in the 17,000 square metre building, Dagens Nyheter wrote. Officers moved room-by-room, meticulously combing the school in what a spokesperson described as a 'dangerous and unpredictable environment', coming across bodies scattered over a large area across the campus.
It would be a full hour before they found the body of the suspected shooter, surrounded by three guns and large amounts of ammunition.
Traumatised witnesses of the massacre were escorted through blood-stained corridors. Police warned them of what they were about to see.
'They said there would be blood... but you really didn't understand it until you saw it with your own eyes,' Maria said.
Amina, a student, recalled seeing three people lying in the hallway as she left the classroom. 'They were dead," she told the outlet.
A video recorded by one of the witnesses as he hid inside a bathroom, and analysed by TV4, appears to show someone shouting 'you should leave Europe' as gunfire rings out. Mercani Sanchez, 44, heard something similar. 'He shouted something,' she told Expressen. 'It was hard to hear with all the noise but it was something like 'out, out'.'
When approached by The Independent, police said they refused to rule out a racially charged motive.
On Sunday, Orebro police commander Henrik Dahlstrom told reporters: "We cannot for the moment establish that a clear motive exists. We are working to see if there is one and what it might be."
Sweden has never suffered such a deadly mass shooting. Despite a recent rise in gun-related homicides - increasing from 17 in 2012 to 63 in 2023 - these have largely been linked to a rise in gang crime.
Following the shooting, the Swedish government has now backed plans to tighten gun laws supported by the three largest parties in the Riksdag - Sweden's parliament.
Access to certain semi-automatic weapons will be restricted and rules for suitability testing will be made clearer among other changes, according to a Friday morning government press release.
But for families and witnesses, this won't undo the road to recovery they face.
'I'm still in shock and haven't been able to sleep and eat very well,' survivor Marwa told TV4. 'I need to see a doctor as soon as possible, because I can't stand these thoughts.'