Swedes to hold peace vigil after truck attack, probe deepens

STOCKHOLM: Thousands of people were to gather in central Stockholm on Sunday for a “Lovefest” vigil against terrorism, as police pursue their investigation into this week’s deadly truck attack.

Shocked by Friday’s attack that left four dead and 15 injured — for which a 39-yearold Uzbek man is in custody — Stockholmers mobilised on Facebook, organising a vigil for 2:00 pm (1200 GMT) at the Sergels Torg plaza near where the truck rammed into shoppers. Sweden has been trying to get back on its feet this weekend after what authorities termed a terror attack, the motive for which was still unknown. The method, however, was similar to previous attacks using vehicles in Nice, Berlin and London, all of them claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group. There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the Stockholm attack — the third in Europe in two weeks, coming on the heels of the car and knife assault outside London’s parliament and the Saint Petersburg metro bombing. Police have not named the suspected driver of the truck, whom they arrested on Friday evening, but authorities said he was known to Sweden’s intelligence service for undisclosed reasons. The man is suspected of speeding a stolen beer truck several hundred metres down the bustling pedes- trian street Drottninggatan in the heart of Stockholm. The vehicle mowed down shoppers before slamming into the facade of the busy Ahlens department store. “There is nothing to indicate that we’ve got the wrong man. On the contrary, the suspicions have strengthened,” Swedish police chief Dan Eliasson said on Saturday. He said police found a suspect device in the cab of the truck. WARSAW: An apartment house collapsed on Sunday in southwestern Poland, leaving four people dead, four injured and two others missing, authorities said.

Scores of firefighters with dogs were searching the rubble of the building in the town of Swiebodzice (Shvyeh-’bohtchi-tseh), according to Daniel Mucha, regional spokesman for the firefighters. He said the collapse of two floors of the threefloor building might have been caused by a gas explosion.

Regional governor Pawel Hreniak said the search-andrescue operation was expected to continue even on Monday.

“I confirm a fourth victim, an elderly man,” Hreniak said. “But another resident, an elderly lady, contacted us to say she was away from the house and was fine.”

Still, firefighters looking for two more survivors said there were no sounds yet coming from the building’s bricks and broken wood.

The governor of Swiebodzice, Bogdan Kozuchowicz, said the pre-world War II building was recently renovated and had been in good technical condition.

The injured were taken to hospitals in Swiebodzice and in Wroclaw. One survivor, identified only by her first name Stanislawa, told TVN24 that she was “miraculously saved.”

“I was in the kitchen and suddenly it was dark and full of debris and some broken wooden planks,” she said from her hospital bed in Swiebodzice. “I got on top of those planks and started calling ‘Help! Help!’ Two firefighters came and pulled me out by the arm.” She said her husband was resting on the bed at the time of the collapse.

“I don’t know what has happened to him,” she said, her voice trembling. With her teenage son, also a survivor, at her side, she said the family had lost everything.

The head of the medical rescue workers, Wojciech Kopacki, said two of the dead were children.