Swedish police have found a suspect device in the truck that ploughed into a Stockholm crowd killing four in Europe’s latest terror attack.
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An angel hangs between flowers at a fence near the department store where a suspected terror attack occurred in central Stockholm. (Markus Schreiber, AP)
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Stockholm – Swedish police found a suspect device in the truck that ploughed into a Stockholm crowd killing four in Europe’s latest such terror attack, officials said on Saturday.
The alleged driver, who is in custody, is a 39-year-old man from Uzbekistan who was already known to Swedish police, authorities said.
« We have found a device in the vehicle that doesn’t belong there … A technical examination is ongoing, we can’t go into what it is right now… whether it’s a bomb or a flammable device, » police chief Dan Eliasson told reporters.
Remained in hospital
Intelligence agency chief Anders Thornberg added that the Uzbek suspect « has appeared in our intelligence gathering in the past.
« There is nothing to indicate that we’ve got the wrong man. On the contrary, the suspicions have strengthened, » Eliasson added.
Flags flew at half-mast across Stockholm on Saturday as the city slowly returned to normal a day after the attack.
A stolen beer truck ploughed into a crowd of people at the corner of the bustling Ahlens department store and the Drottninggatan pedestrian street on Friday afternoon, above ground from Stockholm’s central subway station.
Fifteen people were injured, nine of whom remained in hospital on Saturday.
It was the third terror attack in Europe in two weeks, coming on the heels of assaults in London and St Petersburg, although there has been no immediate claim of responsibility.
Previous attacks using vehicles have occurred in London, Berlin and the southern French city of Nice, all of them claimed by the so-called Islamic State (ISIS).
Security barrier
Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, who said Sweden will hold a minute’s silence on Monday in memory of the victims, has beefed up Sweden’s border controls.
City streets were empty early on Saturday, slowly filling as the day wore on as things began to return to normal – apart from a heavy police presence, a rare scene in this normally tranquil country.
A swelling crowd milled by the security barrier erected around the scene, many placing flowers on the ground or in the security fence.
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