Sweden: two dead in an attack in a high school, a student arrested

Europe 1 with AFP 06:24, March 22, 2022

Two women died in a stabbing attack on Monday at a high school in Malmö, Sweden, for which an 18-year-old student was arrested, Swedish police said.

The two women, aged around 50, "were employees of the school" Malmö Latin, a high school in the center of the country's third largest city, police said in a statement.

According to local media, the alleged perpetrator of the murders himself called the emergency number to say where he was, that he had put down his weapon and that he admitted to having killed two people.

According to several Swedish media, he was armed with a knife and an ax.

The police had dispatched significant resources

The arrest was made without difficulty shortly after the arrival of a first patrol, according to the police account.

Earlier in the evening, a first assessment had reported two injuries among the fifty people in the establishment at the time of the events.

The two victims "were taken to the hospital but their lives could not be saved", explained the authorities.

Alerted around 5:15 p.m. local time (4:15 p.m. GMT), the police had dispatched significant resources and a first patrol was able to enter the establishment.

Footage shows heavily equipped and armed police inspecting the interior of the building.

After initial reports of screaming in the school, "we have had more information suggesting that a serious crime is being committed with acts of violence inside the school", had Police spokesman Nils Norling told AFP.

No motive established or evoked

"The first police patrol on site was able to arrive at the school and arrest a male suspect. They were also able to see that there were two injured people inside the school," he told the court. establishment.

No motive has been established or even mentioned.

After extensively inspecting the scene and interviewing witnesses, the authorities are convinced that the suspect acted alone.

“A great job awaits us to understand what happened and the motivation behind this appalling act,” commented Åsa Nilsson, one of the heads of the investigation.

A press conference is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. (8:30 GMT) on Tuesday morning.

In January, also in southern Sweden, a 16-year-old boy was arrested after injuring a student and a teacher in the town of Kristianstad.

The case had been linked to a similar attack in August in the town of Eslov, around 50 kilometers away, when a student attacked a 45-year-old school worker.

No link has been established at this stage with the Malmö affair.