Truck Plows Into Stockholm Department Store, Killing at Least Three
A truck plowed into a shopping area in Stockholm, killing at least three people and injuring “a large number” of others on Friday afternoon, according to multiple European outlets.
The attack took place at the the corner of Ahlens department store on Drottninggatan, one of the Stockholm capital’s busiest street. After ramming into the crowd, the truck slammed into the mall and burst into flames.
Sweden’s prime minister Stefan Löfven told the press that he believed the crash was a terrorist attack. Local media reports said one person had been arrested, but police denied it during a press conference.
Shots were fired in another part of the city, according to Swedish public broadcaster SVT. The city, as well as its subway, are on lockdown.
The truck is believed to have been hijacked from the Swedish brewery Spendrups earlier on Friday, according to local news agency TT.
This marks the latest truck attack in a string of similar assaults across Europe, following Nice’s July 14 massacre along the Promenade des Anglais, which killed 86 people, and Berlin’s Christmas market attack in December, which killed 12 people. Last month, a man plowed his car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in London, killing three people and stabbing a policeman to death. Also last month, a man attempted to drive into a crowd in the city of Antwerp in Belgium, before being caught by soldiers.
Reacting to the Stockholm attack, Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, said that “one of Europe’s most vibrant and colorful cities appeared to have been struck by those wishing it — and our very way of life — harm.”
The previous terror attack that hit central Stockholm occurred on Dec.11, 2010, when two bombs exploded near Drottninggatan, killing the perpetrator and injuring two people.
Last spring, a 20-year-old man was arrested and convicted for plotting an ISIS-inspired attack using a homemade pressure cooker bomb.
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