Eight people stabbed in suspected terror attack in Sweden

At least eight people were injured, including two seriously, in an attack on Wednesday in Vetlanda (in southern Sweden), whom the police are investigating as a “terrorist”.

The event started around 3:00 p.m. local time (1:00 p.m. GMT), according to the newspaper News of the day, when a man in his twenties attacked with a knife -An ax or a knife, according to reports- to several people in the center of this city of just over 13,000 inhabitants.

The suspect He was shot in the leg by officers and detained, authorities said. Your health is reserved.

The Swedish Minister of the Interior, Mikael Damberg described the event as “horrific” in a statement. “For the moment, we do not quite know what happened and what are the reasons“, He added.

Police spokeswoman in the eastern region of Vetlanda, Angelica Israelsson, transferred that several people are “seriously injured” and others “slightly”.

Authorities, who have deployed surveillance in the hospital to which the alleged assailant was evacuated, initially called the event an “attempted murder” but are now investigating a “suspected terrorist offense”.

However, Israelsson said “the motive is not yet clear” because the man “has not yet been interviewed”, reported the newspaper Aftonbladet. The police assured that there was nothing to indicate that the detainee had acted in the company of other people and stressed that the situation was currently “under control”.

Security forces cordoned off several areas of the city center – including the central station – and rail traffic through Vetlanda has been temporarily suspended.

The Swedish intelligence services consider that currently the terrorist threat is high. The Scandinavian country has been the target of attacks twice in recent years.

In December 2010, a man performed a suicide bombing in central Stockholm. He was killed and there were only a few passers-by slightly injured.

In April 2017, a Rejected and radicalized Uzbek asylum seeker walks over pedestrians in Stockholm with stolen truck and killed five people. He was sentenced to life in prison in June 2018.

With information from AFP, EFE, Europapress

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