2017 Stockholm Terror Attack
2017 Stockholm Terror Attack
On April 7, 2017, 4 people were killed and 15 were injured in a terrorist attack in Stockholm, Sweden. [1]
Terrorism Attack
A medical responder moves through the scene of the attack.
People reacting to the scene
Officers said one person had been arrested and they were treating the incident as terror-related.
The prime minister, Stefan Löfven, said everything indicated it was “a terror attack”. The capital was immediately locked down as police set up barricades, suspended public transport and warned people to avoid the city center. [3]
Photos on social media showed the truck crashed into the corner of the Åhléns upmarket shopping centre with its cab on fire. Witnesses reported people screaming and fleeing from the scene. There were also reports of gunfire, but these have not been confirmed. Hundreds of people were seen in video footage fleeing the street. [2]
“We were in a store, it crashed into a window a few metres away,” one person told the Swedish broadcaster SVT.
“I heard glass breaking and screams.
There are a lot of police and people everywhere.”
A witness named as Anna told local Aftonbladet news: “I saw hundreds of people run – they ran for their lives. I turned and ran as well.” [2]
The truck, a delivery vehicle belonging to the brewery Spendrups, was hijacked earlier in the day. The company confirmed it was stolen on Friday morning when a man jumped into the cab and drove it away. [2]
SVT talked to a witness who saw the truck driving at speed towards the Åhléns department store on Drottninggatan. “He mowed down eight people there and I saw four bodies a little further away. A woman with a small child became completely paralysed and just stood still. I grabbed her and another woman and threw us all into a stairwell.” [2]
Police also confirmed that shots were fired at another location, according to media reports.
When the truck drove into the crowd, a man fled carrying a weapon, according to a reporter at the scene.
Suspect
Swedish authorities confirmed the suspect is a 39-year-old native of Uzbekistan. He was known to the police before the terrorist attack, as he had appeared in past intelligence files. He left a technical device in the driver's seat of the truck, which authorities are still trying to determine whether it's an explosive. [0]