Man said to be preparing terrorist attacks is arrested in Sweden

Swedish security services arrested a man on Thursday suspected of preparing a terrorist attack.

The Sapo agency said the unidentified man had international links, although it is unclear where, and was arrested in western Sweden after “intensive and comprehensive intelligence work”. It said that “preparations for the suspected terrorist offence have been under way for some time”.

Several other people were taken in for questioning after raids on Thursday morning in the region. Police said they could not comment on the international links to the arrest.

They said there was no connection to the Strasbourg attack in France, where a gunman opened fire at a Christmas market, killing three, leaving another brain dead and injuring 12. Cherif Chekatt, 29, remains on the run, and hundreds of French and German police are engaged in a manhunt for a man described as a radical and highly dangerous.

Swedish authorities said they were not in a position to comment whether the arrests involved supposed religious extremists or if they were motivated by other forms of terrorism, according to Stockholm newspaper Aftonbladet.

After two attacks in eight years, Sweden’s current terrorism threat is at the third level of five, meaning that an attack could happen. It is not expected that Thursday’s incident will change this.

At this time, there is no link to the Yemen peace talks, which are being hosted 50 kilometres north of Stockholm.

In a currently unrelated incident, police in the city of Gothenburg, also in western Sweden, evacuated a residential building when a bag containing a hand grenade was found on Thursday.

In April last year, an Uzbek man murdered five and wounded another 14 when he drove a van into a Stockholm crowd.

In December 2010, a suicide bomber also targeted Christmas revellers and shoppers, injuring two.