Two died and two were injured in what is suspected to be a gang-related shooting on Saturday evening near Stockholm.
One of the deceased was a 45-year-old unidentified foreign citizen who later succumbed to his injuries in the hospital and the other victim was a teenager.
"The person who died at the scene is a boy aged 15," Towe Hagg, spokeswoman for Stockholm police, told AFP on Monday.
One of the injured victims was a 65-year-old woman who was unlocking her bicycle near the scene.
“Oh, I’ve been shot in the knee,” she told the Swedish Public Radio station, quickly following that up by saying she sought shelter while bleeding profusely behind a wall and began calling to others for help.
The shooting took place in a suburb south of Stockholm, Farsta, at a subway station using automatic weapons. Two men in their 20s were arrested after a car chase an hour after the shooting on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer stated that the police estimate a total of 21 shots were fired during the shooting, calling the tragedy an act of “domestic terrorism”.
Sweden has seen an uptick in mass shootings and gang-related violence in recent years. Most of the shootings take place in Sweden’s three major cities: Stockholm, Goteborg, and Malmo. There have been 144 mass shootings this year in school, averaging almost one shooting per day. 52 of the shootings have taken place in Stockholm alone. 18 people have died as a result, 10 of which died in Stockholm.
The Scandinavian country’s center-right government has promised to address gang-related crime by proposing stricter laws though they did not specify what kind.
Much of the gang violence taking place in the country is fueled by the narcotics trade. Many citizens hope that laws pertaining to guns and drugs will be created to tackle these issues.
“There has been a worrying rise in crime in Sweden for a while now, the country that I grew up in and used to be so safe,” a user called @WicMar on Twitter said.
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