Swedish authorities have redeployed 100 police officers from across the country to Stockholm to help secure the capital city, which has been rocked by multiple shootings and bombings in the latest crime wave.
Bombings across Stockholm are already well into the double digits for the year, while shootings continue to be recorded at an alarming rate, picking up where the record year of 2022 for fatal shootings across the country left off.
The crime wave has been linked to the ongoing conflict between criminal gangs fighting to control the trade of illicit activity in the city.
“With the recent development of shootings and explosions, we see a need to send additional reinforcements to Stockholm to prevent more murders from occurring in the ongoing conflicts and to increase surveillance in several locations,” said Johan Olsson, head of the police’s national operational department (NOA), in a press release.
Officers will be sent from all Swedish regions and be stationed in the capital for at least the next fortnight. Olsson confirmed the reinforcements will be on the ground “within the next few days.”
“It is a very welcome addition,” said Mattias Andersson, acting regional police chief in Stockholm. “We are doing everything we can to break the serious spiral of violence that the region is in now and need additional resources.”
The extra resources are on top of the 190 police officers already redeployed to the area from across the country, according to Swedish broadcaster SVT.
The call for police backup follows a number of explosions recorded last week, including one on Wednesday outside an office building in the Kista district of Stockholm and the bombing of a restaurant in the Södermalm island districton Tuesday.
Another shooting was reported on Saturday afternoon in the southern Stockholm borough of Enskede. Following a large police operation, three people were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and aggravated weapons offenses.
The suspects include a young man and two minors, according to police spokesperson Helena Boström Thomas.
Stockholm residents have expressed concern for their own safety following the spate of violence in the city. Two women who live in a residential area targeted by a bomb that exploded during the holiday season last year told SVT they no longer feel safe in their own homes.
“It doesn’t feel very nice. It feels unsafe,” a 10-year-old girl known as Liv told the broadcaster.