OREBA, Sweden: Around 10 people were killed Tuesday in a shooting at an education center in Sweden, including the suspected gunman, police said after the rare gun attack on a campus in the Nordic nation.
Authorities had initially said that several people were wounded in the violence at Campus Risbergska, a secondary school for young adults in the town of Orebro, but had not reported any fatalities.
School attacks are relatively rare in Sweden, but the country has suffered shootings and bombings linked to gang violence that kill dozens of people each year.
“Around 10 people have been killed today,” Orebro police chief Roberto Eid Forest told reporters, adding that police could “not be more specific” about the number. “The suspected assailant is not known to police.”
He said police were not aware of a motive yet.
Forest said police received the first reports of a school shooting at 12:33 p.m. (1133 GMT), but could not specify how it unfolded nor whether it occurred inside or outside the school.
Two Campus Risbergska teachers, Miriam Jarlevall and Patrik Soderman, told newspaper Dagens Nyheter they heard gunfire in a hallway.
“Students came and said someone was shooting. Then we heard more shooting in the hallway. We didn’t go out, we hid in our offices,” they said.
“There were a lot of gunshots at first and then it was quiet for a half-hour and then it started again. We were lying under our desks, cowering.”
Some witnesses told Swedish media they heard what they believed to be automatic gunfire.
Police said they believe the gunman acted alone.
Swedish television channel TV4 meanwhile 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 license to carry a weapon and no criminal record, but did not provide any details about his identity.
Police have not confirmed that information.
Police said they were investigating “attempted murder, arson and an aggravated weapons offense.”
They urged members of the public to stay away from the area, or keep inside their homes.
Students in several nearby schools as well as the one in question had been locked in for several hours “for safety reasons” before gradually being released, police said.
“It is a very painful day for all of Sweden,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wrote on X.
“My thoughts are also with all those whose normal school day was replaced with horror. Being confined to a classroom fearing for your own life is a nightmare that no one should have to experience.”
He said the government was “closely monitoring developments.”
A mother whose son was kept indoors at his nearby school for several hours during the police operation told AFP she was “shocked” and “angry.”
“My son is at this school behind us, they’re locked in too. They have to hide, so I’m waiting for them to evacuate,” Cia Sandell, 42, said.
“This is crazy, totally crazy. I’m angry, I’m shocked. This shouldn’t happen,” she said.
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.
‘Around 10’ dead, including shooter, in Sweden campus attack
https://arab.news/9ddk3
‘Around 10’ dead, including shooter, in Sweden campus attack
- Orebro police chief Roberto Eid Forest told reporters that police could “not be more specific” about the number
- “The suspected assailant is not known to police“
Tensions flare in Minnesota as protesters and federal agents repeatedly square off
- The Trump administration has repeatedly defended the immigration agent who shot Good, saying he acted in self-defense
- With the Department of Homeland Security pledging to send more than 2,000 immigration officers into Minnesota, the state, joined by Minneapolis and St. Paul, sued President Donald Trump’s administration Monday to halt or limit the surge
MINNEAPOLIS: Federal officers dropped tear gas and sprayed eye irritant at activists Tuesday during another day of confrontations in Minneapolis while students miles away walked out of a suburban school to protest the Trump administration’s bold immigration sweeps.
The government’s immigration crackdown is next headed to a federal court where Minnesota and two mayors are asking a judge to immediately suspend the operation. No hearing has been set on the request.
Gas clouds filled a Minneapolis street near where Renee Good was fatally shot in the head by an immigration agent last week. A man scrubbed his eyes with snow and screamed for help while agents in an unmarked Jeep sprayed an orange irritant and drove away.
It’s common for people to boo, taunt and blow orange whistles when they spot heavily armed agents passing through in unmarked vehicles or walking the streets, all part of a grassroots effort to warn the neighborhood and remind the government that they’re watching.
“Who doesn’t have a whistle?” a man with a bag of them yelled.
Brita Anderson, who lives nearby and came to support neighborhood friends, said she was “incensed” to see agents in tactical gear and gas masks, and wondered about their purpose.
“It felt like the only reason they’d come here is to harass people,” Anderson said.
Separately, a judge heard arguments and said she would rule by Thursday or Friday on a request to restrict the use of force, such as chemical irritants, on people who are observing and recording agents’ activities. Government attorneys argued that officers are acting within their authority and must protect themselves.
In Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, students protesting the immigration enforcement operation walked out of school, as students in other communities have done this week.
With the Department of Homeland Security pledging to send more than 2,000 immigration officers into Minnesota, the state, joined by Minneapolis and St. Paul, sued President Donald Trump’s administration Monday to halt or limit the surge.
The lawsuit says the Department of Homeland Security is violating the First Amendment and other constitutional protections by focusing on a progressive state that favors Democrats and welcomes immigrants.
“This is, in essence, a federal invasion of the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and it must stop,” state Attorney General Keith Ellison said.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said: “What we are seeing is thousands — plural — thousands of federal agents coming into our city. And, yeah, they’re having a tremendous impact on day-to-day life.”
Dozens of protests or vigils have taken place across the US to honor Good since the 37-year-old mother of three was killed.
Homeland Security says it has made more than 2,000 arrests in the state since early December and is vowing to not back down. Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, responding to the lawsuit, accused Minnesota officials of ignoring public safety.
“President Trump’s job is to protect the American people and enforce the law — no matter who your mayor, governor, or state attorney general is,” McLaughlin said.
The Trump administration has repeatedly defended the immigration agent who shot Good, saying he acted in self-defense. But that explanation has been widely panned by Frey, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and others based on videos of the confrontation.
Two Democratic lawmakers from Massachusetts announced Tuesday they are sponsoring a bill to make it easier for people to sue and overcome immunity protections for federal officers who are accused of violating civil rights. The bill stands little chance of passage in the Republican-controlled Congress.
In Wisconsin, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez is proposing that the state ban civil immigration enforcement around courthouses, hospitals, health clinics, schools, churches and other places. She is hoping to succeed Gov. Tony Evers, a fellow Democrat, who is not running for a third term.
“We can take a look at that, but I think banning things absolutely will ramp up the actions of our folks in Washington, D.C.,” Evers said, referring to the Trump administration. “They don’t tend to approach those things appropriately.”
