"What should not have happened has happened in Sweden," lamented Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in the early evening of Tuesday, February 4. A few hours earlier, a man with a gun entered an adult education center in Örebro, a city of 160,000 inhabitants, 200 kilometers west of Stockholm. According to the preliminary toll, released by the police overnight, 11 people were killed and several seriously injured. The suspect is dead.

According to the investigators, who gave no information on his profile or possible motives, the man was not known to the police. "He had no links with the gangs" who are behind the flurry of violence in Sweden in recent years, reported Örebro police chief Roberto Eid Forest. The most likely lead is that he was a lone perpetrator. According to several media reports, the killer was a 35-year-old unemployed man who lived in seclusion and had a firearms permit. "So far, there is no indication of an ideological motive," said Maths Thörn, a police officer in the Bergslagen region. An investigation has been opened into attempted murder, arson and aggravated weapons offenses.

You have 78.68% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.