‘Bodies on the ground’: mass shooting shocks Sweden
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‘Bodies on the ground’: mass shooting shocks Sweden

Eleven dead including gunman who opened fire at school in Orebro

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The shooting in the usually quiet central town of Orebro has shocked Sweden. (Photo: AFP)
The shooting in the usually quiet central town of Orebro has shocked Sweden. (Photo: AFP)

ÖREBRO, Sweden - Linn could not get the thought of “blood everywhere” out of her head after her usually quiet town of Orebro on Tuesday became the scene of the worst mass shooting in Swedish history.

“I was standing there, watching what was happening, and I was just around here when I saw some bodies lying on the ground. I don’t know if they were dead or injured,” the 16-year-old, who goes to school near the site of the massacre, told AFP.

With her friend, she lit a few candles in the shape of a cross across the street from the adult education centre where 11 people — reportedly including the gunman — lost their lives.

“There was blood everywhere, people were panicking and crying, parents were worried … it was chaos,” she added, her voice trembling.

“You would never think something like this would happen here in Sweden, especially in Orebro,” said Linn, who has several friends who attend a school next to Campus Risbergska, an education centre for young adults where the shooting happened.

Police have not disclosed any information about the identity or ages of the dead, nor whether they were students or teachers at the school.

They also did not comment on the number of wounded nor how serious the injuries were, but the southern Orebro region said that six people suffering from gunshot wounds were taken to hospital.

“This is the worst mass shooting in Swedish history,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a press conference late on Tuesday.

A lot of “questions were still unanswered”, he said.

“But there will come a time when we will know what happened, how it could happen and what motives may have been behind it,” Kristersson said, urging people not to “speculate”.

“The motive for the shooting is not yet known, but all the indications are that the perpetrator acted alone, without ideological motive,” Orebro police said in a statement.

“The perpetrator is not known to the police, he has no gang affiliations, we believe there will be no further attacks,” police chief Roberto Eid Forest said.

The television channel TV4 reported that police had raided the suspect’s home in Orebro late on Tuesday afternoon.

It said the suspect was around 35 years old and had a licence to carry a weapon and no criminal record, but did not provide any details about his identity.

The man lived reclusively, was unemployed, and had distanced himself from his family and friends, the newspaper Aftonbladet reported, citing family members.

‘Crazy, totally crazy’

Around a perimeter set up by the police, anxious parents waited for the all-clear to collect their children, eyes anxiously glued to their phones.

One father came out, walking briskly, with his two children wrapped up in pink down jackets. “I’m far too stressed to answer any questions,” he told AFP as he crossed the street.

Another parent, 42-year-old Cia Sandell, could not hold back her rage.

“This is crazy, totally crazy. I’m angry, I’m shocked. This shouldn’t happen,” she said.

Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf said in a statement that he had received the news of the shooting with “sadness and dismay”.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen described the event as “truly horrifying”.

“Such violence and terror have no place in our societies — least of all in schools. In this dark hour, we stand with the people of Sweden,” she said in a post on X.

Though such shootings are rare, several other violent incidents have struck Swedish schools in recent years.

In March 2022, an 18-year-old student stabbed two teachers to death at a secondary school in the southern city of Malmo.

Two months earlier, a 16-year-old was arrested after wounding another student and a teacher with a knife at a school in the small town of Kristianstad.

In October 2015, three people were killed in a racially motivated attack at a school in the western town of Trollhattan by a sword-wielding assailant who was later killed by police.

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