Politics

What We Know About the Sweden Ramming Attack

April 7th 2017

At least three people were killed when a truck drove through a crowd of shoppers in Stockholm, Sweden, on Friday afternoon, with dozens of others injured from what has been labeled as a terror attack.

It appears someone stole a truck, then intentionally drove it into a large crowd on Drottninggatan (Queen Street), one of the city's biggest pedestrian thoroughfares. The attack took place in the early afternoon, when the streets were crowded with shoppers and sent people running in every direction.

In the aftermath of the attack, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said that "everything indicated" that the crash was "a terror attack."

A Swedish brewing company confirmed that one of its trucks had been stolen earlier in the day, and it later crashed into the window of a department store, setting the truck's cab on fire, according to the BBC. There have been reports of one arrest, but no one has been held in connection to the attack, BBC reports. 

Stockholm was put on lockdown in response to the attack, with public transportation suspended, and both tourists and residents told to avoid the city center. At the same time, rumors began circulating on social media of gunshots being heard in other parts of the city, though it wasn't clear if this was part of the attack, or related to something else.

If the attack turns out to be terrorism, it will mark the fourth time a truck has been used to plow through a crowd in a European city in less than a year.

In July, an ISIS-inspired driver killed 86 people by ramming a large crowd at a parade in Nice, France; while a Berlin Christmas market truck attack left 12 dead in December; and five people were killed by a truck attack on Westminster Bridge in London in March.

It would also it be the first attack in Sweden since an Iraqi-born Swedish man blew himself up in a failed attack in Stockholm in 2010, The Guardian reports.

This story is developing, and we will update this piece as more information comes in.

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