Sweden was on Wednesday coming to terms with the worst-ever mass shooting in its history, one day after a gunman killed 10 people at an adult education center before turning his weapon on himself.
At least five other people were seriously injured in the incident in Orebro, a city of some 100,000 people around 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of the capital Stockholm.
All underwent surgery at Orebro University Hospital and were said to be in serious but stable conditions by Wednesday morning.
Swedish King and PM visit scene of shooting
“Today, we have witnessed brutal, deadly violence against completely innocent people,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told reporters in Stockholm late on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, he visited the scene of the attack, called Campus Risbergska, to lay flowers along with King Carl XVI Gustav and Queen Silvia.
“We are very shocked,” the King said, adding that the royal couple were “thinking about all those who are having a difficult time now. They are not alone. All of Sweden is mourning today.”
Orebro mayor John Johansson told local broadcaster SVT that the incident was “totally unexpected” and said he understood that “children, our youth, are very afraid today. So am I.”
Flags were flying at half-mast in Orebro as well as at parliament and the royal palace in Stockholm. Candles and flowers have been placed near the Campus Risbergska, where police were on Wednesday continuing their investigations.
Police investigation continues
“There is no information pointing to ideological motives,” police said in a brief statement on their website, referring to the culprit described by Swedish media as a 35-year-old unemployed recluse with a hunting license who appeared to have acted alone.
Police stressed that unverified and contradictory rumors that the suspect may have been a neo-Nazi or jihadist were not based on any evidence and urged the public not to spread conspiracy theories.
Tax data seen by the Reuters news agency showed that the suspected attacker lived in a one-bedroom apartment in a low-rise building less than a kilometer (around half a mile) from Orebro city center.
Late on Tuesday, police vans and personnel were still stationed outside, with officers confirming that it was indeed the suspect’s flat.
“We saw a lot of police with drawn weapons,” said local resident Lingam Tuohmaki, 42, who lives in the same building.
‘People lying on the floor, injured, blood everywhere…’
Meanwhile, students and staff at the school have been recounting their experiences.
“A guy next to me was shot in the shoulder, he was bleeding a lot,” student, Marwa, told broadcaster TV4. “When I looked behind me, I saw three people on the floor bleeding. Everyone was shocked. They said: ‘Go out! Get out!’ I took my friend’s shawl and tied it tightly around his shoulder so that he wouldn’t bleed so much.”
Maria Pegado, a 54-year-old teacher at the school, said someone threw open the door to her classroom and shouted to everyone to get out, at which point she and her students started running out of the school to safety.
“Many of them have fled from countries where things like this happen and now they experience it here,” she said of her students, who are training to become kitchen staff. “It is horrible.”
Indeed, many students in Sweden’s adult education system are immigrants seeking qualifications to help them find jobs, while also learning Swedish.
One of them, Mirna Essa, told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper: “We hear a woman saying, ‘No, no, no,’ three times. 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 is, ‘Why?'”
Ali El-Mokdad arrived at the hospital overnight to check whether his brother-in-law, who had gone missing, was among the injured. A friend of his had been at the school when the shooting broke out, he told the Reuters news agency.
“My cousin called her and she started crying,” he said. “She saw people lying on the floor, injured, and blood everywhere.”
Is gun crime a problem in Sweden?
Another teacher, Mattias Jansson, said that emergency training kicked in when he heard shouts for people for evacuate.
“When we made it to the emergency exit we heard the bangs,” he told Dagens Nyheter. “These are things that we have been taught, gathering and evacuating, trying to get as many people out as possible.”
Sweden has a high level of gun ownership by European standards, mainly linked to hunting in the country’s vast rural areas, though it is much lower than in the United States.
While gun violence at schools is very rare, Sweden has been struggling with a wave of shootings and bombings caused by an endemic gang crime problem.
Edited by Louis Oelofse
