2023-09-13 20:48:20
The gang war in Sweden is leading to an “unprecedented” wave of violence, the national police director said on Wednesday, following several fatal shootings in a week.
“Recently there have been an unprecedented number of murders and explosions,” national police chief Anders Thornberg said at a press conference.
“Several boys aged 13 to 15 were killed, the mother of a criminal was executed at home, a young man in Uppsala was shot dead on his way to work,” he listed. The sponsors of these murders are often abroad, he said.
Several shootings took place this week in Sweden: four in the university town of Uppsala – including two fatalities – and two in Stockholm, where a 13-year-old boy lost his life.
Increased insecurity
For several years, Sweden has been gripped by a war between gangs competing for arms and drug trafficking.
In 2022, 90 explosions and 101 attempted explosive attacks were recorded, according to Swedish police data. As of August 15, 2023, 109 explosions have already been recorded in the country.
Conflicts between these criminal gangs cost the lives of innocent people, insisted Anders Thornberg. “Citizens are afraid, insecurity is increasing. In addition, we have raised our terrorist alert level in the country,” he said.
“Several people were arrested and weapons confiscated in Uppsala alone, where the situation is very serious,” said Ulf Johansson, a police official in the Uppsala region, a city located 70km north of Stockholm. during this press conference.
Sweden saw 391 shootings in 2022, including 62 fatalities, compared to 45 people killed by gunfire a year earlier.
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