Swedish police said they were investigating a knife attack on Wednesday as a possible "terror crime" in which at least eight people were wounded, and that the assailant had been arrested after being shot and wounded.
Police said a man in his 20s attacked people in the small town of Vetlanda, about 190 kilometers (118 miles) southeast of Goteborg, Sweden’s second largest city.
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Swedish police cordon off the scene of an attack that wounded eight people in the city of Vetlanda
(Photo: AFP)
Some of the victims were in serious condition and the suspect was hospitalized after his arrest, a police spokesman told a news conference.
The man was previously known to police for minor crimes, the spokesman said. Swedish media reported that the assailant used an axe.
”Some are seriously injured and some are slightly injured, but no one is dead,” police spokeswoman Angelica Israelsson Silfver told the Aftonbladet newspaper.
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven condemned the incident.
"We confront such heinous acts with the combined force of our society," he told TT news agency.
He said Sweden’s domestic security agency SAPO was also working on the case.
”They continuously assess whether there are reasons to take security-enhancing measures and are prepared to do so if necessary,” he said in a statement.
Regional police chief Malena Grann told a news conference that a suspect had been arrested after ”police opened fire.”
Local police chief Jonas Lindell said the suspect had been admitted to hospital.