Uzbek man arrested over Swedish truck attack that killed four
By Johan Sennero, Anna Ringstrom and Bjorn Rundstrom
STOCKHOLM, April eight (Reuters) - Swedish police arrested a 39-yr-antique Uzbek man on suspicion of ramming a hijacked beer delivery truck into crowds in important Stockholm, killing four humans and wounding 15 in what they referred to as a terror crime.
Police have been more and more confident they had detained the driver of the truck that ploughed down a busy shopping road and smashed through a store the front in the heart of the capital on Friday, however did not name him.
"Nothing factors to that we have the wrong man or woman, on the contrary, suspicions have reinforced as the investigation has advanced," Dan Eliasson, head of Sweden's national police, told a information conference.
"We nonetheless can't rule out that greater human beings are involved."
The guy had previously figured marginally in intelligence fabric, but had now not been connected to extremists.
"We obtained intelligence final 12 months, however we did not see any hyperlinks to extremist circles," Sapo security police chief Anders Thornberg stated.
Eliasson stated there have been "clean similarities" to an attack remaining month in London in which six human beings died, along with the assailant who drove a hired vehicle into pedestrians on a bridge.
Vehicles have additionally been used as guns in Nice and Berlin inside the beyond year in assaults claimed by means of Islamic State.
There become no immediate declare of responsibility for the attack in Sweden, which has to this point been largely immune from any primary incidents of this kind, and police said they tightened protection across the country.
"I assume it changed into only a count of time, however still one doesn't assume it'll happen," Cecilia Hansson, a 25 year-vintage nurse, said. "It's still unreal while it happens this close."
Police stated that they had determined a suspicious device in the vehicle however said they did not yet understand if it became a homemade bomb, as pronounced by using public broadcaster SVT.
SVT stated the bomb can also have partly exploded, burning the motive force, who escaped within the ensuing chaos after mowing through crowds and ramming into the Ahlens department keep.
Local authorities in the capital, where flags flew at half of mast on homes together with the parliament and royal palace, said that 10 human beings along with a infant have been still being handled in sanatorium, with adults in extensive care.
A gaping hollow within the wall of the store showed the force of the effect from the truck, which turned into eliminated overnight for examination through forensics experts, and dozens of humans collected to pay their respects and depart vegetation, greatly surprised via the assault.
Crown Princess Victoria turned into amongst them, laying a bouquet of crimson roses. "I feel an considerable sadness, I sense empty," she advised Aftonbladet TV, urging Swedes to unite of their grief.
Prime Minister Stefan Lofven also visited the site and struck a defiant tone. "All of us sense anger over what has happened, I also experience the identical anger, however we additionally need to use that anger for some thing positive and pass ahead," he stated.
"We want - and I am satisfied the Swedish people additionally need - to stay a normal life. We are an open, democratic society and that's what we can stay."
OPEN SOCIETY
The attack was the modern-day to hit the Nordic place after shootings in the Danish capital Copenhagen killed 3 people in 2015 and positioned the united states of america on high alert and the bombing and taking pictures in 2011 by way of a ways-proper extremist Anders Behring Breivik that killed 77 human beings in Norway.
Although Sweden has now not seen a large-scale assault, a failed suicide bombing in December 2010 killed an attacker only a few hundred yards from the site of Friday's incident.
Swedish police said it turned into particularly hard to identify "lone wolf" attackers in an open, Nordic society.
"It could be very hard if it is a unmarried individual who isn't always a part of a much broader conspiracy or a more organised planning," Thornberg, head of the Sapo security police, advised Swedish radio.
"But we need to locate these individuals as nicely."
Police in Norway's largest towns and at Oslo airport will convey weapons till in addition observe following the assault.
Al Qaeda advised its followers to use trucks as a weapon in 2010 and Islamic State claimed duty for an assault in Nice, France, in July 2016, when a truck killed 86 humans celebrating 14 july, and one in Berlin in December, while a truck smashed through a Christmas marketplace, killing 12 people.
In closing month's assault in London, a man drove into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge near Britain's parliament and then stabbed a policeman to demise before being killed himself. Six humans died in total.
In February U.S. President Donald Trump falsely cautioned there had been an immigration-related safety incident in Sweden, to the bafflement of Swedes.
Neutral Sweden has not fought a warfare in extra than 200 years, but its military has taken element in U.N. Peacekeeping missions in numerous warfare zones, consisting of Iraq, Mali and Afghanistan.
(Reporting by using Stockholm newsroom; writing by way of Simon Johnson and Alister Doyle; enhancing via Alexander Smith)