Five people wounded in Sweden school shooting

STOCKHOLM — Five people were shot and wounded at a school in the central Swedish city of Orebro on Tuesday, police said, urging the public to stay away from the area as a large operation was under way.

Images from the scene showed a large police presence with multiple ambulances and emergency vehicles outside the school.

Several media, including tabloid Expressen and news agency TT, reported that the suspected shooter had shot himself dead, but police have not confirmed that information.

School attacks are relatively rare in Sweden, which has in recent years grown more accustomed to shootings and bombings linked to gang violence that kill dozens of people each year.

“The extent of the injuries is unclear. The operation is ongoing,” police said in a statement.

Police initially said that four people had been shot, but updated the tally minutes later to five.

A teacher at the school said he was in the school when he heard gunfire.

“I heard shots fired, so I’ve barricaded myself and am waiting for news. We have an alarm on our security app and I’m communicating with my colleagues,” Petter Kraftling told the online union newspaper Vi Larare.

According to media reports, the attack took place at the Campus Risbergska school, a secondary school for adults.

A website for Orebro’s healthcare authorities confirmed that four people had been admitted to Orebro University Hospital after the shooting, but said it was unable to provide details about their ages or injuries.

The crime was being investigated as “attempted murder, arson and an aggravated weapons offence”, police said.

Members of the public were urged to stay away from the area, or stay inside their homes.

In an update just after 2:00 pm (13:00 GMT), police stressed that “the danger is not over. The public MUST stay away”.

Police were to hold a press conference at 3:30 pm (14:30 GMT).

Newspapers Expressen and Aftonbladet reported that police had been fired on at the scene, but police said in a statement no officers had been wounded during the operation.

Students in nearby schools and the school in question had been locked in “for safety reasons”, police said.

Speaking to public broadcaster SVT, Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer said the reports were “very serious”.

“The government is in close contact with the police and is closely following developments,” Strommer told SVT.

According to several Swedish media, witnesses reported hearing what they believed to be automatic gunfire.

Aftonbladet wrote that it had received reports that the local hospital had emptied its emergency room and intensive care unit in anticipation of the arrival of the wounded people.

Though school attacks are rare, several serious incidents have taken place at 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 later killed by police.