Swedish police have rushed to the scene where multiple people were said to have been stabbed, condoning off the centre of Västerås.
Police said of the apparent attack: “Police are ordered to central Västerås due to the fact that several people were found injured outdoors. The person must have been injured with some kind of sharp object. The people are taken care of by ambulance personnel.
“The police have cordoned off an area in central Västerås and are working with trace protection, witness interviews and creating a picture of what happened.
“The police are looking for you who may have made observations in connection with the incident. A piece of information that you consider uninteresting can be valuable for the investigation, and the police are very keen to get all kinds of information about the incident, both before, during and after it happened.”
Gang violence has become an increasingly prescient issue in Sweden in recent months.
Shootings and stabbings are on the rise, and this has caused concern among the public and political leaders.
In November, Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, this year: “Sweden has never before seen anything like this. No other country in Europe is seeing anything like this.”
Since 2013 the number of fatal shootings in the country has more than doubled, according to official statistics.
In 2022, the gun-murder rate in the capital Stockholm was 30 times that of London
The far-right Sweden Democrats, now the second biggest party in Sweden, have blamed migration for the problem.
But, as the Guardian reported in November, statistics show there is a link between rising crime and areas where living standards are falling behind.
We’ll be bringing you the very latest updates, pictures and video on this breaking news story.
Stay up to date with all the big headlines, pictures, analysis, opinion and video on the stories that matter to you.
Follow our social media accounts here on http://facebook.com/ExpressUSNews and ExpressUSNews
Tyler Mitchell