Rioters set Swedish migrant suburb ablaze just days after Trump’s ‘open door’ warning
VIOLENT riots broke out in an immi- grant neighbourhood in Sweden days after Donald Trump claimed its immigration system was failing.
Protesters threw rocks at police, looted shops and set cars on fire as they turned the Rinkeby area of the capital Stockholm into a ‘war zone’.
One officer was injured after being hit by a rock on Monday evening.
The violence flared after President Trump sarcastically said that Sweden’s open door approach to immigration was ‘working out beautifully’. He had earlier seemed to wrongly suggest there had been a terrorist attack in Sweden on Friday night which earned him ridicule across the country.
But the violence in Rinkeby seemed to suggest there are still tensions over immigration in the country.
Freelance photographer Janne Akesson told Swedish newspaper Dagbladet that police fired warning shots when they were pelted with stones by young people wearing hats and hoods.
He said: ‘I got out when it was at its worst. It was very chaotic. I have seen much in Rinkeby – they burn cars all the time. Unfortunately this was beyond the ordinary.’ Nobody was arrested during the riots but police spokesman Lars Bystrom said one officer fired his gun.
He added that ‘no one was hit’ but declined to give further details, saying the episode was going to be investigated.
Sweden, a country of 10million people, has taken in 650,000 refugees over the past 15 years thanks to its tolerant attitudes and generous welfare system.
Mr Trump waded into the debate at a rally in Florida last week.
He said: ‘When you look at what happened last night in Sweden... They took in large numbers, they’re having problems like they never thought possible’.