Sweden arrests suspected driver of Stockholm ‘terrorist crime’
STOCKHOLM: Flags flew at half-mast across Stockholm yesterday as the city woke in mourning, a day after a truck attack that killed four as police said they had the suspected driver in custody.
A stolen beer truck ploughed into a crowd of people at the corner of the bustling Ahlens department store and the pedestrian street Drottninggatan on Friday afternoon, above ground from Stockholm’s central subway station. It was the latest in a string of similar assaults with vehicles in Europe, including in London, Berlin and the southern French city of Nice, all claimed by the so-called Islamic State (IS).
No one has claimed responsibility for the Stockholm attack, the third in Europe in two weeks after those in London and Saint Petersburg. Fifteen people were injured in the Stockholm attack, nine of whom remained in hospital on Saturday.
“Terror hits the heart of the city,” Sweden’s biggest broadsheet Dagens Nyheter headlined its front page above a picture of the truck with its front end smashed into the store.
Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said he had strengthened the country’s border controls, as flags flew at half-mast at parliament, the royal palace, the government offices, and City Hall.
“Terrorists want us to be afraid, want us to change our behaviour, want us to not live our lives normally, but that is what we’re going to do. So terrorists can never defeat Sweden, never,” Lofven said.
Streets were empty yesterday morning, apart from a heavy police presence. A small crowd milled by the security cordon around the scene, as passersby laid down flowers. Swedish police said yesterday that a man arrested on ‘suspicion of a terrorist crime’ was likely the truck driver.
“We suspect that the man who was arrested is the perpetrator,” Stockholm police spokesman Lars Bystrom told AFP.
The man was arrested ‘on suspicion of a terrorist crime through murder,’ Karin Rosander, spokeswoman at the Swedish Prosecution Authority, said.
The man was detained on Friday in Marsta, a suburb north of Stockholm. According to several media outlets, he is a 39year-old of Uzbek origin and an IS supporter.
Prosecutors did not disclose his identity, but police said his appearance ‘matched the description’ of a photo they released of a suspect wearing a dark hoodie and military green jacket. — AFP