Sweden, which has been hit by a wave of violence, is still not calming down. A total of three people were killed in new shootings and explosions near Stockholm and the university city of Uppsala in less than twelve hours.
Two men were shot dead in two attacks south of Stockholm on Wednesday evening and Thursday night, and a young woman was killed in an explosion north of Uppsala early Thursday morning. According to Swedish broadcaster SVT, two of the fatal incidents have links to the Foxtrot criminal network, which is at the center of the recent wave of violence.
Gang crime is escalating
Sweden has been struggling with rampant gang crime for years, with repeated shootings and deliberate explosions. People regularly die as a result, often young men or minors. In the wake of the suspected internal gang conflict at the Foxtrot network, violence recently escalated again – eleven people have already been shot this month, including bystanders. This makes September the deadliest month in terms of gun violence since the end of 2019, SVT reported.
It is much rarer for people to be killed in detonations – which makes the recent explosion in Uppsala all the more dramatic. The woman killed was around 25 years old. In addition, there was major damage to several houses. Two men were later arrested on suspicion of murder.
In the past few days there had been various explosions around Stockholm, in which people were injured and there was major damage to residential buildings. One of them happened on Monday evening in a house where 26-year-old athlete Irene Ekelund lives. The sprinter wrote on Instagram that she took her dog, jumped out of the window and ran.
