Gunman in Swedish school massacre likely shot himself after killing 10 people: Police

OREBRO, Sweden – Swedish police indicated on Feb 5 that

a gunman who slaughtered 10 people

at an adult education centre shot himself, as the country mourned its worst mass killing.

Candles were lit and flowers were laid out in front of the cordoned-off Campus Risbergska – a school for young adults in Orebro – as people paid their respects to the victims.

King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia visited the town, the royal court announced as the country struggled to understand events.

Police did not immediately give details on the gunman or his motive.

But they confirmed that 11 people, “including the killer”, had died in Feb 4’s shooting spree in the town west of Stockholm.

Asked about reports that the gunman turned his gun on himself, Orebro police chief Roberto Eid Forest told reporters that “there is a lot to indicate that”.

Mr Forest told a press conference that the suspect was dead when police reached him.

The police were working to establish the reason for the killing spree and had not seen an indication of an “ideological motive”, he added.

The suspect was not previously known to the police.

“I can’t say more about the suspected perpetrator, other than that he was obviously motivated and had access to firearms,” said area police chief Lars Wiren.

“When the first police officers entered the building, shots were fired, likely at the police, but none of our staff is injured,” he said.

The police said not all the victims had been fully identified and have not disclosed any information about them, even whether they were students or teachers at the school.

They encouraged witnesses to contact them and to share videos of the shooting.

The health authorities said six people were being treated at Orebro’s university hospital.

Three women and two men had undergone surgery for gunshot wounds and were in a “stable but serious” condition.

A woman was also being treated for minor injuries, Orebro County authorities said in a statement, adding that all the injured were over the age of 18.

“This is the worst mass shooting in Swedish history,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a press conference late on Feb 4. He said a lot of questions were still unanswered.

“But there will come a time when we will know what happened, how it could happen and what motives may have been behind it,” Mr Kristersson said.

School attacks are relatively rare in Sweden, but the country has suffered shootings and bombings linked to gang violence that kill dozens of people each year.

“The perpetrator is not known to the police, he has no gang affiliations, we believe there will be no further attacks,” Mr Forest told reporters on the evening of Feb 4.

Numb, speechless

Swedish television channel TV4, meanwhile, reported that police raided the suspected gunman’s home in Orebro on Feb 4.

It said the suspect was around 35 years old and had a licence to carry a weapon and had no criminal record. Reports have not identified him, however.

The unemployed man was reclusive, and had distanced himself from his family and friends, newspaper Aftonbladet reported, citing family members.

The shooting occurred around midday on Feb 4.

“I was standing there, watching what was happening, and I was just around here when I saw some bodies lying on the ground. I don’t know if they were dead or injured,” said 16-year-old Linn, who goes to school near the site of the massacre.

“There was blood everywhere, people were panicking and crying, parents were worried... it was chaos,” she added, her voice trembling.

Ms Liv Demir, 36, whose son attends a school near Campus Risbergska, said she was shocked to hear of the shooting. “I became numb, speechless. I didn’t really know where to go,” she told AFP.

Her son also has gym classes at Campus Risbergska.

“My thoughts were spiralling because I packed his sports bag in the morning,” Ms Demir said.

Dark hour

Sweden’s Royal Court announced that flags would be “flown at half-mast at all royal palaces”. The government announced a similar measure for its offices and Parliament.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen described the event as “truly horrifying”.

“Such violence and terror have no place in our societies – least of all in schools. In this dark hour, we stand with the people of Sweden,” she said in a post on social media platform X.

Though such shootings are rare, several other violent incidents have struck Swedish schools in recent years.

In March 2022, an 18-year-old student stabbed two teachers to death at a secondary school in the southern city of Malmo.

Two months earlier, a 16-year-old was arrested after wounding another student and a teacher with a knife at a school in the small town of Kristianstad.

In October 2015, three people were killed in a racially motivated attack at a school in the western town of Trollhattan by a sword-wielding assailant, who was later killed by police. AFP