By Philip O’Connor and Johan Ahlander
FAGERSTA, Sweden, Aug 21 (Reuters) – A man armed with a sword injured several people at a Swedish high school on Friday and one person was later detained, local authorities said, triggering a massive response from emergency services.
The incident occurred on Friday afternoon at the Brinell high school, which has 450 students aged 16 to 20, in Fagersta, a town of 13,000 inhabitants in central Sweden.
“We received an alarm at 1406 (1206 GMT) about suspected deadly violence and sent all available resources to the school,” a police spokesperson told Reuters.
The spokesperson said one person at the scene was later taken into custody and that there was no longer any danger to the public.
“IT FEELS UNREAL”
The school had just opened after summer recess and for some students it marked the first day at the senior high school.
Local newspaper Fagersta-posten talked to Madelene Jansson outside the school, which her daughter had been attending.
“I first got a text message from her that somebody had been stabbed and that police was on its way. Then it all just went off. It feels unreal,” she told the paper.
Several other schools and public buildings in Fagersta were also placed in lockdown after the sword attack took place.
The Vastmanland county authority said it had adopted high alert status.
“We are moving into high alert status to marshal our resources and gain the clearest possible picture of the situation. That will give us the best basis for making the right decisions,” Jonas Cederberg, director of health and medical services, said in a statement.
Citing unnamed sources, the daily Expressen said police had shot the suspect in the case but Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.
The incident comes a year after a school shooting in Orebro, also in central Sweden, when a gunman killed 10 people before turning the weapon on himself, in the worst mass shooting in Swedish history.
The Swedish government is in close contact with the police following Friday’s attack, Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer said in a statement to Reuters.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said police were working intensively on the case and asked everyone to let them and the emergency services work undisturbed.
“Our thoughts are with all those affected,” he wrote in a post on social media X.
Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson, whose centre-left coalition holds a clear lead in opinion polls ahead of next month’s parliamentary election, said that “all of Sweden stands together with Fagersta at this difficult time”.
(Reporting by Johan Ahlander, Marie Mannes, Simon Johnson and Niklas Pollard, writing by Louise Rasmussen and Gwladys Fouche, editing by Terje Solsvik, Gareth Jones and Toby Chopra)
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