Three people have been shot dead in a “brutal act of violence” in Sweden.
Swedish police said a murder investigation has been launched after the deadly shooting in Uppsala on Tuesday, with photos of the scene showing officers outside a barber shop called “Shalom”.
The force said they had cordoned off a large area in the city, which is near the country’s capital Stockholm, and that they had no information about the incident being a terror or hate crime at this point.
Police said in a statement that they had received calls from members of the public who reported hearing loud bangs reminiscent of gunfire in central Uppsala, and that emergency services had rushed to the scene.
Witnesses told broadcaster SVT they had heard five shots and had seen people in the area at Vaksala Square running to take cover.
Police said the victims were yet to be identified and declined to speculate on the motive for the killings.
“We have information that a person left the scene on an electric scooter,” a police spokesperson told Reuters. “Whether this person is a perpetrator or a witness, or someone who has some connection to the incident, it is unclear at this time.”
The motive of the shooting was unclear as of yet, with police investigating it as a homicide.
Swedish police said a masked gunman carried out the shooting that killed three people. According to media reports, the assailant escaped after shooting on a scooter. Police said it was an “isolated incident” and that there was “no danger to the public”.
Electric scooters have been used several times as a mode of escape after gang conflict shootings in Sweden. Uppsala, some 40 minutes north of the capital, Stockholm, by car, has seen many gang-related shootings in the past decade, but usually outside the city centre.
The attack happened the evening before the Walpurgis spring festival was set to get underway in Uppsala, which is known for its university. The traditional festival marking the arrival of spring is a major public event and draws large crowds to the city’s streets, with a number of activities put on in celebration.
Swedish justice minister Gunnar Strommer said the justice ministry was in close contact with the police and that it was closely monitoring developments in the case.
"A brutal act of violence has occurred in central Uppsala ... This is at the same time as the whole of Uppsala has begun Walpurgis Night. What has happened is extremely serious," Mr Strommer said in a statement.
“Everything happened so fast. It just went bang, bang, bang,” an eyewitness told Swedish channel TV4.
Another man recounted that he had been cooking at home when he heard “two bangs that sounded a bit like fireworks” coming from the street outside.
Speaking to Swedish television, he said he was “very surprised and scared”, and that shortly afterwards, “swarms of police and ambulances” began cordoning off the street and instructing people to move back.
Train services in the area were temporarily halted to prevent the perpetrator from escaping, police spokesperson Magnus Jansson Klarin said, but they have since resumed.
Police officers have also been conducting door-to-door enquiries to gather more information.
Sweden has suffered from a wave of gang-related violence for more than a decade that has included an epidemic of gun violence. In 2023, there were 363 shootings that resulted in 53 fatalities. Sweden, according to a Reuters report last year, has, by far, the highest per capita rate of gun violence in the EU.
Ten people were killed in February in the Swedish city of Orebro in the country's deadliest ever mass shooting, in which a 35-year-old unemployed loner opened fire on students and teachers at an adult education centre.
The Nordic country's right-wing minority government came to power in 2022 on a promise to tackle gang-related violence. It has tightened laws and given more powers to police, and after the Orebro shooting, said it would seek to tighten gun laws.
