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TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Swedish police said on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, there was no evidence of "ideological motives" behind a mass shooting at an adult education center and warned of misinformation spread on social media about the Nordic country's deadliest gun attack.
Police have said the motive for the shooting, which killed at least 11 people in the central Swedish city of Orebro on Tuesday, was not immediately known. The suspected perpetrator, who was among the dead and was not known previously to the police, appeared to have acted alone, they said.
Many people were wounded in the attack at the Risbergska school in Orebro, a town of more than 100,000 people, where large numbers of police have cordoned off the center and several schools in its campus complex.
Regional authorities said six victims had been treated in hospital, four women and two men. Five of them had required surgery for gunshot wounds and remained in serious condition, their statement said.
Maria Pegado, 54, a teacher at the school, said someone threw open the door to her classroom just after the lunch break and shouted to everyone to get out. She and her students then started running out of the school to safety.
"I think of my students," Pegado said. "Many of them have fled from countries where things like this happen and now they experience it here. It is horrible."
Pegado teaches adult students to become kitchen staff, many of them immigrants. Many students in Sweden's adult school system are immigrants seeking qualifications to help them find jobs in the Nordic country, while also learning Swedish.
Ali El Mokdad arrived at the hospital overnight to see if his brother-in-law, who had gone missing, was among the injured. A friend of his had been at the school when the shooting broke out, he said.
"My cousin called her and she started crying. She fell to the ground because she was crying so much, she thought what she saw was so terrible. She only saw people lying on the floor, injured, and blood everywhere," Mokdad said.
The attacker has not been identified by authorities. Swedish media reported that he was an unemployed man aged around 35, who had a hunting license.
MEMORIAL
Candles and flowers have been placed near the school in Haga Street, where police officers continued their investigations inside the one-story building. Two police officers stood nearby under a grey sky.
"We want to be clear that based on investigative and intelligence information at present, there is no information pointing to the culprit acting on ideological motives," police said in a brief statement on its website.
Flags at official buildings in Orebro, some 200 km (125 miles) west of Stockholm, as well as at the Swedish parliament and the royal palace in the capital, were flying at half-mast in a sign of respect and mourning.
"Our task is to take care of those attending the affected school, those who work there as well as inhabitants of Orebro who are worried and sad," Orebro Municipal Director Peter Larsson said in a statement.
Police said they did not see any general threat against schools or pre-schools in the country, nor against adult education schools, including Swedish classes for immigrants.
"We also at present don't see any danger to the public, even if we understand that the incident raises concerns and many questions," the police statement said.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer would travel to Orebro later on Wednesday, a government statement said. The Royal Court said separately that the King and Queen would also be traveling there on Wednesday.
Sweden has been struggling with a wave of shootings and bombings caused by an endemic gang crime problem that has seen the country of 10 million people record by far the highest per capita rate of gun violence in the EU in recent years.
However, fatal attacks at schools are rare.
Kristersson on Tuesday said the attack was the worst mass shooting in Swedish history, calling it a "painful day", while King Carl XVI Gustaf conveyed his condolences.
Ten people were killed in seven incidents of deadly violence at schools between 2010 and 2022, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention.
REUTERS | Johan Ahlander and Anna Ringstorm
Editor’s Choice: Sweden's Deadliest Attack Leaves 11 Dead at Orebro Adult School
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