STOCKHOLM, June 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A 15-year-old boy was killed and three other people injured in a shooting in Stockholm on Saturday, police said, adding that a motive had yet to be established.
Police received reports of the shooting near a square in southern Stockholm in the early evening, and found two people with gunshot wounds at the scene. Another two were found injured nearby.
The teenager succumbed to his wounds while the others were taken to hospital.
“The person who died at the scene is a boy aged 15,” Towe Hagg, spokeswoman for Stockholm police, said.
Another 15-year-old boy was injured, as were a man and a woman aged between 45 and 65, police said in a statement.
They added that two men had been arrested following a car chase south of Stockholm just under an hour after the shooting.
Police said they had launched an investigation into murder and attempted murder.
On Friday, another three people were injured in two separate shootings in the wider Stockholm area.
Sweden has struggled to rein in a surge of shootings and bombings in recent years, as gangs settle scores fueled by the narcotics trade.
The country registered 391 shootings in 2022, 62 of them fatal, up from 45 the previous year, according to police data.
Saturday’s incident brings the total of killed and wounded in connection with shootings in the Stockholm area to seven in less than 24 hours.
According to statistics compiled by the Swedish Police, 18 people were killed and 41 injured in 144 shootings around the country during the first five months of the year.
Ten of the fatalities during the period were recorded in the Stockholm region.
Last year, shootings resulted in 62 fatalities in Sweden, making 2022 the worst year on record since 2016. The vast majority of shootings are gang-related, according to the Swedish Police. — NNN-AGENCIES
