AFP
Police investigators work at the scene where a man attacked eight people with a “sharp weapon,” seriously injuring five, in the Swedish city of Vetlanda on Wednesday.
A man stabbed eight people on Wednesday in the Swedish city of Vetlanda, seriously injuring five of them in what police called a potential terror incident.
The assailant was taken to hospital after being shot in the leg by police as he was taken into custody following the mid-afternoon attack in the southern city of 13,000 inhabitants.
Police said the man in his twenties had used a “sharp weapon,” while local media reported he had brandished a knife.
Police initially treated the incident as “attempted murder” but later changed it in a statement to include a “suspected terrorist crime,” without giving further details.
Three of those attacked were said to have suffered life-threatening injuries, while two others were in serious condition, according to information coming out of the hospital in Jonkoping where they were being treated. The remaining three suffered lighter injuries.
Local resident Olivia Strandberg said she didn’t see the actual attack but witnessed the man being taken away, from her window just as she returned home from work.
“I had just gotten to my apartment when my best friend wrote me and said: Don’t go out!” Strandberg said, with the broadcaster showing footage of the suspect being taken away in an ambulance on a quiet street.
Speaking at a press conference, regional police chief Malena Grann later clarified that a preliminary investigation was still under the designation “attempted murder,” but details had emerged that meant they were also looking into “potential terror motives.”
“There are details in the investigation that have led us to investigate whether there was a terror motive,” Grann said, without giving details.
Grann added the police was working closely with the Swedish intelligence service Sapo.
However, Karl Melin, press chief at Sapo, declined to comment.
“The event in Vetlanda is currently a police issue,” he said.
Local police chief Jonas Lindell told media they had identified five different crime scenes, a few hundred meters apart.
Lindell said the suspect was a local resident previously known to police, but in the past had only been suspected of “petty crimes.”
He declined to say if the man was a Swedish citizen.
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven condemned the “horrific violence” in a statement on his Facebook page.
“We face these despicable actions with the combined force of the community,” Lofven said.
“We are reminded of how frail our safe existence is.”
(Agencies)