Sweden mass shooting at school for adults is country's worst ever, with 11 dead including the gunman
Police chief Roberto Eid Forest, for the city of Orebro, about 100 miles west of Stockholm, where the tragedy played out, said Wednesday there was "a lot to indicate that" the gunman had shot himself, saying he was found already dead when police reached him.
Officials said Wednesday that three women and two men, all with gunshot wounds, had undergone surgery at Orebro University Hospital. All were in serious but stable condition after being admitted to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Another woman was treated for minor injuries and was stable.
Jonas Claesson, regional director of health and medical services, said that two of the gunshot victims were in intensive care Wednesday. All the victims are over the age of 18, officials said. No other patients related to the shooting were admitted to Orebro University Hospital overnight.
The school, called Campus Risbergska, offers primary and secondary educational classes for adults age 20 and older, Swedish-language classes for immigrants, vocational training and programs for people with intellectual disabilities. The school is on the outskirts of Orebro, which is about 125 miles west of Stockholm.
Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer called the shooting "an event that shakes our entire society to its core." King Carl XVI Gustaf and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at the Royal Palace and government buildings.
The king and Queen Silvia were in Orebro and would visit the school district and attend a memorial service in the city, the palace said. Kristersson and Strömmer would also be there. Soccer teams Degerfors IF and Orebro Syrianska will wear black armbands at a preseason match on Wednesday evening and hold a minute's silence before kickoff, Degerfors said.
The shooting started Tuesday afternoon after many students had gone home following a national exam. Students sheltered in nearby buildings, and other parts of the school were evacuated following the shooting.
Eid Forest, head of the local police, said the school's large premises meant it took a long time for officers to search the campus to ensure there were not any more victims. Police heard gunshots when they arrived and initially thought they were being fired upon, he said.
Eid Forest said six officers were treated for smoke inhalation. There wasn't a fire, he said, and authorities didn't immediately know what caused the smoke.
Investigators will spend Wednesday seeking information from witnesses and checking any video of the attack. Police wouldn't say whether the shooter had multiple guns.
There were no warnings beforehand, and police believe the perpetrator acted alone. Police haven't said if the man was a student at the school. They haven't released a possible motive, but authorities said there were no suspected connections to terrorism at this point.
Police raided the suspect's home after Tuesday's shooting, but it wasn't immediately clear what they found. They cautioned the public against spreading incorrect narratives on social media.
"Today, we have witnessed brutal, deadly violence against completely innocent people," the prime minister told reporters in Stockholm late Tuesday. "This is the worst mass shooting in Swedish history. Many questions remain unanswered, and I cannot provide those answers either.
"But the time will come when we will know what happened, how it could occur, and what motives may have been behind it. Let us not speculate," he said.
While gun violence at schools is very rare in Sweden, people were wounded or killed with other weapons such as knives or axes in several incidents in recent years.
Gun ownership is legal in Sweden, but the country's laws on firearms are strict, with "the right to possess weapons, even for protection purposes," requiring a license granted only with explicit permission from the police force, which must be applied for in advance of any intended purchase.
Licensed gun owners must carry their documentation with them at all times when in possession of firearms, and the country's laws cover not only guns but weapons that fire or deploy tear gas.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
2 days ago
- Newsweek
ICE Makes Major Change for New Recruits
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) no longer requires new recruits to take a five-week Spanish-language training program, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). "ICE simply replaced the five-week in-person Spanish course with a more robust translation service for all officers regardless of when they entered on duty," DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement to Newsweek. The Intercept first reported the policy change. DHS did not provide details of the translation service. However, Axon, a company with a $5.1 million contract to provide Homeland Security with body-worn cameras, advertises that its latest body camera includes real-time "push-to-talk voice translation" in more than 50 languages. A deportation officer with Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducts a brief before an operation in the Bronx borough of New York on December 17, 2024. A deportation officer with Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducts a brief before an operation in the Bronx borough of New York on December 17, 2024. Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Why It Matters President Donald Trump's hard-line immigration agenda has pushed ICE into the center of the national conversation surrounding immigration enforcement. Since the beginning of Trump's second term, thousands of suspected undocumented migrants have been arrested. Last month, Republicans passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which increased funding for ICE—allocating $45 billion to expand detention capacity to almost 100,000 beds, $14 billion for transportation and deportation operations, $8 billion to hire 10,000 additional deportation officers, and additional funding for technology upgrades. ICE is expected to experience a hiring boom after the passage of the key legislation. DHS has said that more than 100,000 people have already applied to join the nation's top immigration enforcement agency. The legislation is expected to support the administration's efforts to accelerate deportations as Trump seeks to fulfill his pledge of widespread mass deportations. What To Know The decision reflects both the federal government's increasing reliance on translation technology and a broader trend under the Trump administration toward scaling back non-English services. Speaking of the new service, McLaughlin said, "This translation service allows our officers to communicate with individuals with all dialects and dozens of different languages." Earlier this year, after Trump issued an executive order designating English as the official language of the United States, several agencies reduced multilingual assistance—despite the order stating that it did not require changes to agency services. DHS, for example, will no longer provide translation help for callers seeking information about employment status or benefits. Given that the vast majority of those arrested by ICE are from predominantly Spanish-speaking Latin American countries, the removal of formal Spanish training for officers is a significant operational shift. ICE's Spanish-language requirement dates back to its predecessor, the Immigration and Naturalization Service's Office of Detention and Removal Operations, which maintained the policy until March 2003, when the office was absorbed into ICE under the newly created DHS. ICE reinstated the program in 2007. In 2010, the Government Accountability Office—Congress' nonpartisan research agency—warned that DHS's failure to adequately assess its language needs posed operational risks. "According to DHS officials, foreign language skills are an integral part of the department's operations," the report said, adding, "These officials told us that while Spanish language proficiency may be identified as an existing capability, it may not always be available and generally the levels of proficiencies vary." In a 2007 memo, ICE described its Spanish-language training program as a five-week course to strengthen listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, with an emphasis on the first two. By 2016, the curriculum shifted to focus on grammar and the ability to perform arrests and complete related documentation. In addition to dropping the Spanish-language training, DHS announced in August that ICE would lower the minimum applicant age from 21 to 18 and remove the previous maximum age limit, which barred applicants over the age of 37 or 40. What People Are Saying DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement to Newsweek: "We are using technology not only to save U.S. taxpayer dollars but to also broaden our ability to communicate with illegal aliens we regularly encounter from countries across the globe."
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Two wounded in shooting near mosque in Sweden
Two people were wounded Friday in a shooting near a mosque in the Swedish town of Orebro, an attack police said they believed was linked to feuding organised crime gangs. Local media quoted witnesses as saying at least one person was shot as he left the mosque. Police provided no details about the circumstances of the shooting, but urged the public to stay away from the scene as they searched for the shooter. "We are currently actively pursuing the perpetrator or perpetrators," police spokesman Anders Dahlman told AFP. "We are interviewing witnesses and carrying out our technical investigation," he said. One witness told Swedish public broadcaster SVT that he was standing just a few metres (yards) away from one of the men who was shot. "He was on his way out of the mosque. Then another man came up and fired four, five shots," said the witness, whose name was not disclosed. Police would not confirm the age or gender of the two wounded, nor the severity of their condition. Both were transported to hospital for care. The shooting occurred as people were leaving the mosque after Friday prayers, sparking panic as people ran from the scene, local media reported. - Organised crime link - In a statement, police said they believed the incident was linked to Sweden's "criminal network milieu". Police spokesman Lars Hedelin told daily Aftonbladet the shooting was likely an "isolated incident" and not directed at the mosque itself. Police said they had opened a preliminary investigation into attempted murder. The Scandinavian country, once known for its low crime rates, has struggled for years to rein in organised crime. Criminal networks are involved in drug and arms trafficking, welfare fraud, and regular shootings and bombings that have plagued the country in recent years. Police say the leaders of the criminal networks increasingly operate from abroad. They orchestrate murders and attacks via social media, often recruiting young children under the age of criminal responsibility to carry out the attacks. According to global database Statista, Sweden had the third highest number of homicides involving firearms per 100,000 inhabitants in Europe in 2022, behind Montenegro and Albania. Data from Sweden's National Council for Crime Prevention show that while shootings have declined since the peak year 2022, the number of explosions has increased. The town of Orebro was the scene of a school shooting in February in which 11 people were killed, including the perpetrator. po/jj
UPI
2 days ago
- UPI
Hong Kong press mogul Jimmy Lai's trial paused due to his heart issues
Aug. 15 (UPI) -- The trial of Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong media mogul, was postponed for a few days due to issues with the 77-year-old's heart. The three judges overseeing the trial said the proceedings will resume Monday with closing arguments. Lai was given medication and a Holter monitor, which tracks the heart's electrical activity. The trial had also been delayed Thursday because of torrential rain in the city. Lai, a citizen of the United Kingdom, founded Apple Daily, a Chinese-language newspaper published in Hong Kong from 1995 to 2021. The tabloid has been described as anti-government, pro-democracy and anti-China. He is accused of collusion with foreign forces and sedition. He has been in solitary confinement since December 2020. He faces life in prison. Prosecutors have accused the media tycoon of requesting foreign countries to engage in "hostile activities," such as imposing sanctions, against authorities in Hong Kong and mainland China. He allegedly conspired with senior editorial staff of Apple Daily and was the "mastermind and financial supporter" of the Fight for Freedom; Stand with Hong Kong advocacy group, which lobbied for international sanctions against Hong Kong and China. Lai denied in court that he had ever sought to influence the Hong Kong policies of other countries via his high-level contacts overseas, including former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen. Questioned about meetings with Pence and then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2019, Lai said the meeting with Pence was more of a briefing where he updated him and answered questions about what was going on in Hong Kong. With Pompeo, Lai denied asking him to do anything, saying he only asked him to speak out and "to voice support for Hong Kong." Beijing added national security laws directly into Hong Kong's mini-constitution in June 2020 after a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalized subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts, which include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. This gave police broad new powers and led to hundreds of arrests, while dozens of civil society groups disappeared. Authorities said it restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from trade partners, the United Nations and non-governmental organizations. The trial has been going on since 2023, and Lai gave a 52-day testimony. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he would "do everything [he] can to save" Lai, in an interview with Fox News. "We'll see what we can do," he said, adding that Lai "was not a young guy." Trump had said earlier that he would bring up Lai's case in trade negotiations with Beijing. Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for China's embassy in Washington, said Beijing "strongly opposes external forces using judicial cases as a pretext to interfere in China's internal affairs or to smear and undermine Hong Kong's rule of law," the BBC reported. Liu described Lai as "a key orchestrator and participant in anti-China, destabilizing activities in Hong Kong." Lai has said he had always advocated against the use of violence and strictly enforced an Apple Daily editorial stance opposing independence for Hong Kong, including a hiring ban on staff supporting Hong Kong splitting from China, saying the idea was "too crazy" to even contemplate. He said the charges alleging he was pushing for independence were a "conspiracy" to entrap him.
