Four dead as terrorist rams lorry into Swedish shoppers
Terrorist ploughs through pedestrian area and into department store
Police in full body armour flood the streets of downtown Stockholm as the manhunt begins for a terrorist who killed at least four people by ramming a lorry through a pedestrianised shopping zone and into a department store window. Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said ‘the country is in a state of shock’.
At least four people died and nine more were seriously injured after a suspected terrorist ploughed a lorry into crowds in the middle of Stockholm yesterday.
Emergency services said a total of 15 people, including children, were being treated following the outrage in a busy shopping district at the heart of the Swedish capital.
The lorry smashed through a stone lion bollard into a pedestrianised area, leaving a trail of blood and debris before ploughing into the corner of a department store where it burst into flames.
Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet quoted a witness saying they saw hundreds of people running for their lives near the Ahlens mall.
Another witness told the newspaper that the out-ofcontrol truck ran over at least two people. A manhunt has been launched for an individual the police wish to speak to, who was pictured wearing an olive jacket and black hood.
A spokeswoman for Stockholm County Council said: “We have 15 injured, adults and children, who are being taken care of at hospital.
“Nine of them are seriously injured.” Senior police officer Mats Lofving said: “We don’t know whether this incident is isolated or whether we can expect more.
“We have police positioned at several strategic places with a particular risk threat.”
Mr Lofving showed pic- tures of the man they want to speak to, urging anyone with information to get in touch and saying: “For us it’s important to get in touch with this person.”
Widespread condemnation poured in from across the globe as news of the attack broke, including from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who said he was “deeply concerned”.
The incident comes after trucks were used in terror attacks in Nice and Berlin last year and just two weeks after Muslim convert Khalid Masood ploughed his car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in London.
The Aftonbladet newspaper reported that the truck had been hijacked from Swedish beermaker Spendrups earlier in the day.
Witness Jan Granroth told Aftonbladet that “we stood inside a shoe store and heard something … and then people started to scream.”
He said: “I looked out of the store and saw a big truck.”
Another witness quoted by the paper said: “When I came out, I saw a lorry standing there, with smoke coming from it, and there were loads of bits of cars and broken flower pots along the street.”
Annevi Peterson described people lying dead and injured in the street, with blood everywhere.
“I heard the noise, I heard the screams, I saw the people,” she told BBC News.
The crash is close to the scene of a terror attack in 2010 when Taimour Abdulwahab, a Swedish citizen who lived in Luton, blew himself up. The terrorist, who police concluded acted alone, died on December 11 2010 in the Bryggargatan area. No one else was killed in that incident.