4
dead in Stockholm truck attack, 1 person arrested - Swedish Police
RT,
7
April, 2017
Stockholm
authorities have confirmed that four people have died and 15 are
injured, following the truck attack that took place outside Ahlens
department store in the city. Swedish police have also confirmed one
person has been arrested.
Police
said that the person was arrested in a Northern Stockholm suburb and
resembles the picture and description they issued earlier Friday,
according to Reuters.
"We
went public with information and a picture of a person that we were
interested in. The person who is arrested resembles that description
which means we have particular interest in him in regard to the
ongoing investigation," regional police official Jan Evensson
told a news conference.
Swedish
Prime Minister Stefan Lofven says that all details indicate the
incident was a “terrorist attack.”
A
witness by the name of Dimitris told Aftonbladet that he saw at least
two people run over by the vehicle.
Witness
Stefan Pettersson told RT that he "saw at least three bodies
that were covered with blankets and probably already dead." He
added that he could see smoke and fire.
"And
now I can see policemen, they’re armed and they have full
protection and it's really chaos, and they told us to stay away from
the windows..." he added.
Pettersson
went on to state that he was about to leave for lunch at the time of
the attack, noting that "if I had been 15 seconds earlier I
probably would have been dead right now..."
Swedish
police have issued a warning to avoid Stockholm’s city center. All
Stockholm subway services have been shut down, according to TT news
agency.
#BREAKING: Swedish police say a truck has driven into crowds injuring people on a main shopping street in central #Stockholm
The
city's central train station has also been evacuated. All trains to
and from the station have been canceled for the rest of the day,
Sweden's national rail company SJ announced.
All
Swedish government offices have been closed following the attack, and
all ministers are safe, a source told Reuters.
Security
has also been tightened at other locations throughout the city.
Facebook
has activated its safety check for people in the Stockholm area.
“Yeah,
of course there was a great panic,” witness Roman Mitrofanov told
RT. "People were talking on their phones and crying, and some of
them, almost everyone, had a mobile phone in their hand and was
trying to reach somebody to talk to.”
Footage
posted on Twitter shows panicked pedestrians fleeing the scene.
“I
saw hundreds of people run, they ran for their lives,” a witness by
the name of Anna told the newspaper, adding that she also fled the
scene.
A
worker at Ã…hlens department store said the truck drove into the
store’s perfume department. He said an alarm went off inside the
store and everyone was asked to leave the building, SVT reported.
A
photo posted online shows the truck after it crashed into the
department store, with the caption stating that the vehicle came from
a direction in which trucks are not allowed.
Radio
Sweden is also reporting that the truck caught fire after crashing
into the department store.
Helicopters
are circling above the area, a witness told SVT.
The
area has been cordoned off by police. Authorities were alerted at
2:53pm local time, according to SVT.
An
employee at the nearby Stockholm Inn hotel told RT that hotel
employees and guests are being “informed to stay in here because
it's not over yet.” She added that she has not heard any shots
fired.
Swedish
brewery Spendrups has reportedly said that one of its trucks was
hijacked earlier on Friday.
In
a joint statement, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and his
German counterpart Sigmar Gabriel said they are "deeply shocked"
at the incident, adding that they stand by their "Swedish
friends," Sputnik reported.
The
statement was made during the ministers' two-day visit to Mali.
The
scene is near the site of a December 2010 attack which saw a man rig
a car with explosives, in an effort to drive people to Drottninggatan
- where the Friday incident took place. From there, he planned to set
off devices strapped to his chest and back. The car bomb never went
off, and the attacker died when one of his devices detonated. Two
others were injured.
The
Friday incident comes less than three weeks after an attacker plowed
a truck into pedestrians in London, killing four people. One police
officer was also fatally stabbed by the attacker.
An
attacker also smashed a truck through a Christmas market in Berlin in
December, killing 12 people.
Last
July, an attacker in Nice, France, plowed a truck into pedestrians
during a Bastille Day celebration, killing 86 people
US media
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