One person was killed and another was wounded in a shooting near a mosque in southern Sweden on Friday. Police stated they believe the attack is connected to feuding organized crime gangs.
Local media, quoting witnesses, reported that at least one person was shot as he was leaving the mosque in the town of Orebro, located about 200 kilometers west of Stockholm.
In a statement, police said a man “around the age of 25 died as a result of the wounds he suffered.” The condition of the second person was not disclosed. Police did not provide details about the victims’ identities or the circumstances of the shooting. Several hours after the incident, the search for the shooter was still ongoing, and authorities urged the public to stay away from the scene.
“We are currently actively pursuing the perpetrator or perpetrators,” police spokesman Anders Dahlman told AFP. “We are interviewing witnesses and carrying out our technical investigation,” he said.
The shooting occurred as people were leaving the mosque after Friday prayers, sparking panic as people fled the scene, according to local media reports. One witness told Swedish public broadcaster SVT that he was standing only a few yards away from one of the men who was shot. “He was on his way out of the mosque. Then another man came up and fired four, five shots,” said the witness, who was not named.
Connection to Organized Crime
In a statement, police said they believed the incident was connected to Sweden’s “criminal network milieu.” Police spokesman Lars Hedelin told the daily Aftonbladet that the shooting was likely an “isolated incident” and not targeted at the mosque itself.
The initial investigation was opened as a preliminary inquiry into attempted murder, which was changed to murder after the man’s death. Sweden, once known for its low crime rates, has been struggling for years to control organized crime. Criminal networks are involved in drug and arms trafficking and welfare fraud, with regular shootings and bombings plaguing the country in recent years.
Police say that the leaders of these networks increasingly operate from abroad, orchestrating murders and attacks via social media. They often recruit young children to carry out the attacks, as they are below the age of criminal responsibility.
According to the global database Statista, Sweden had the third-highest number of homicides involving firearms per 100,000 inhabitants in Europe in 2022, behind Montenegro and Albania. Data from Sweden’s National Council for Crime Prevention show that while shootings have decreased since their peak year in 2022, the number of explosions has increased. The town of Orebro was also the site of a school shooting in February, in which 11 people were killed, including the perpetrator.
