Swedish teenager arrested after three shot dead at hair salon
The victims, aged between 15 and 20, were killed on Tuesday afternoon in the university city, north of Stockholm.
A 16-year-old Swedish suspect was arrested on suspicion of murder at his home at midnight, said Andreas Nyberg, a state prosecutor.
Detectives were 'particularly intensively' investigating the theory that the killings were gang-related but said it was too early to draw conclusions.
Police added that the incident was believed to be 'an isolated event' and not linked to celebrations of Walpurgis Night – a northern European and Scandinavian festival where families and students gather around bonfires to welcome spring.
The identities of the victims have not been disclosed.
One of the alleged murder victims was said to have been investigated by police over a planned attack on a relative of Ismail Abdo, a notorious local gang leader, but not charged.
Gun violence epidemic
The shootings occurred on the day Europol, the EU law enforcement body, announced a special taskforce against organised crime groups in Sweden and neighbouring countries. Its aim is to prevent the recruitment of children as hitmen and drug mules.
In only four months, 25 people have been shot dead in an epidemic of gun violence in a country that has 2.5 times more gun deaths than the EU average.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority said in a statement: 'An intensive investigation is underway.
'We are now gathering information and the police are conducting door-to-door inquiries and interviewing witnesses.
'In addition, mobile phones and other material that has been seized are being analysed.'
Gunnar Strommer, Sweden's minister of justice, said: 'Regardless of what is behind it, it is a violence that no decent society can accept and must stop.
'We will not slow down in this work.'
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