Swedish police investigating possible 'terror motives' in knife attack

[webfact]

Swedish police investigating possible 'terror motives' in knife attack

By Johan Ahlander and Helena Soderpalm

 

Police forensics team members work at a knife attack site where several people were injured before the suspect was shot by police and taken into custody in Vetlanda, Sweden March 3, 2021. TT News Agency/Mikael Fritzon via REUTERS

 

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish police said they were investigating possible terror motives for a knife attack on Wednesday in which at least eight people were injured, and that the assailant has been arrested after being shot and wounded.

 

Some of the victims were in serious condition and the suspect, a man in his 20s, was hospitalised after his arrest, a police spokeswoman told a news conference. The man was previously known to police for minor crimes, she said.

 

"We have started a preliminary investigation of attempted murder but there are details in the investigation that make us investigate possible terror motives," regional head of police Malena Grann told a news conference.

 

Police said the suspect attacked at least five different locations in Vetlanda.

 

"We heard a scream from the street. Then we saw a man enter the store, shouting that he had been stabbed," Asa Karlqvist, owner of a florist shop, told local newspaper Vetlanda-Posten.

 

"Blood was pouring from his shoulder, so we got towels and applied pressure on the wound," she said.

 

The situation was under control and there were no indications that anyone else was involved in the attack in the town of Vetlanda, 340 km (210 miles) south of the capital Stockholm.

 

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven condemned the incident. "We confront such heinous acts with the combined force of our society," he said in a statement, adding he was in constant contact with both the police and the security service.

 

Police were alerted to the attack in Vetlanda, a town of around 13,000 people, around 3 p.m. and initially said it did not appear to be an act of terrorism.

 

In April 2017, a radical Islamist drove a truck into crowds of shoppers on a busy street in central Stockholm, killing five people before crashing into a department store. He was arrested and later sentenced to life in prison.

 

(Reporting by Johan Ahlander, Anna Ringstrom and Helena Soderpalm; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Nick Zieminski)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-03-04

 

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[jesimps]

I can't must much sympathy for the Swedish people, it's them who keep voting in this ultra left, female-dominated government who invite and allow this to happen.

[rcuthbert]

Statement from the Swedish PM's office:

"Well, at least the attacker didn't attach a masculine pronoun to a gender neutral terror threat."

[4737 Carlin]

Celebrate the diversity.

[katana]

"..The arrested suspect is a male Afghan citizen in his 20s and lived in an apartment in Vetlanda. According to public records he was registered as arriving in Sweden in 2018. According to neighbours he spoke Swedish poorly and no English which made communication with him difficult. He was frequently helped by a woman from social services. He had a previous conviction for narcotics crime..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vetlanda_stabbing_attack

[simple1]

1 hour ago, katana said:

"..The arrested suspect is a male Afghan citizen in his 20s and lived in an apartment in Vetlanda. According to public records he was registered as arriving in Sweden in 2018. According to neighbours he spoke Swedish poorly and no English which made communication with him difficult. He was frequently helped by a woman from social services. He had a previous conviction for narcotics crime..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vetlanda_stabbing_attack

 

Why did you deliberately remove "They also suspected he was mentally ill" from your cut and paste from Wiki - didn't suit your agenda? The facts of the motivation / illness of the attacker will come out in Court...

[darksidedog]

An off topic post dragging the US in to this has been removed, along with the equally off topic replies.

Please look at the topic heading before posting, to ensure you are not following the wrong path.