Swedish police detain 16-year-old after three killed in Uppsala capturing | Sweden

A 16-year-old has been detained on suspicion of capturing and killing three individuals within the metropolis of Uppsala, in accordance with Sweden’s prosecution authority.

“An intensive investigation is beneath manner. We at the moment are gathering info and the police are conducting door-to-door inquiries and interviewing witnesses,” the authority stated in an announcement.

“As well as, cell phones and different materials which were seized are being analysed.”

Police had earlier confirmed in a press convention {that a} detained particular person was suspected of homicide and was one among a number of individuals being interrogated as a part of the investigation, though they didn’t present an age. They did, nonetheless, verify that the victims have been aged between 15 and 20.

The capturing happened at a hair salon in Uppsala, a college metropolis 45 miles north of Stockholm, on Tuesday. Police stated the incident was believed to be an remoted occasion and never linked to the annual Valborg celebrations anticipated within the metropolis on Wednesday night. Valborg is a Swedish bonfire pageant marking the arrival of spring.

Swedish media reported that one of many deceased had connections to organised gang crime. Police wouldn’t verify these reviews however stated gang-related crime was one of many theories they have been pursuing “notably intensively”.

Authorities in Sweden have been struggling to take care of gang violence, which stays on the forefront of a nationwide debate, together with rising issues over the younger age of kids being caught up within the bloodshed. Weapons and explosives are frequently utilized by rival gangs.

Police have appealed to the general public for info after a masked particular person was seen fleeing the crime scene on an electrical scooter on Tuesday.

The minister of justice, Gunnar Strömmer, condemned the killings as a “brutal act of violence”.

Police have been first alerted to the incident shortly after 5pm on Tuesday, after they acquired a number of telephone calls from members of the general public about loud bangs. Officers later confirmed that three individuals have been useless.

“Fairly quickly we encountered three individuals who appeared to have been shot. They didn’t have to be taken to hospital,” Magnus Jansson Klarin, a spokesperson for Uppsala police, advised the Svenska Dagbladet day by day newspaper.

The Swedish authorities introduced in February that it deliberate to strengthen its weapons legal guidelines after the nation’s worst mass capturing, when a gunman killed 10 individuals at an schooling centre in Örebro, west of Stockholm, earlier than capturing himself. The person’s motives are nonetheless beneath investigation.

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report