Masked mobs torch cars in Sweden
GANGS of masked youths have firebombed dozens of cars in Sweden, prompting a furious response from the country’s prime minister.
At least 100 cars were set ablaze in three cities. Police believe the attacks were planned and coordinated on social media sites, including the picture messaging app Snapchat.
Photographs showed young men dressed in black torching cars in a car park in Gothenburg, Sweden’s second largest city. Other attacks were reported in nearby Trollhattan and in Malmo, the country’s third largest city.
Violent crime is high on the political agenda in Sweden after a spate of shootings and grenade attacks. Opposition leaders have accused the ruling centre-Left coalition of allowing ‘no-go zones’ to emerge in deprived areas with large migrant populations.
Elections will be held on September 9, when the anti-immigration Eurosceptic party Sweden Democrats hopes to become the country’s largest political party.
Opponents blamed the wave of firebombings on far-Right extremists, claiming it was an attempt to whip up support against immigrants. Others questioned if migrant gangs had carried out the arson attacks.
Police said they did not yet know the motive for the firebombings on Monday night, but said they believed they were connected. In Trollhattan, roads were blocked and up to 40 people set fire to cars, tyres and pallets, and threw rocks at police.
Detectives said they had identified several youths who were spotted near fires in Frolunda, a suburb of Gothenburg, and a 16year- old and a 21-year- old were arrested on suspicion of arson.
A police spokesman said: ‘Our theory is that the fires have somehow been co-ordinated on social media like Snapchat but we do not know why.’
Prime minister Stefan Lofven said the perpetrators threatened to ‘destroy’ neighbourhoods and asked them: ‘ What the hell are you doing?’
In a radio interview, he said: ‘You destroy it for yourself. You destroy it for your parents, you destroy it for entire neighbourhoods, for your neighbours, and society must respond very hard.’