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Sweden gun homicides infographic
Graphic shows number of homicides in Sweden in recent years and homicide rate compared to other European countries.
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CRIME

Sweden reeling after deadliest mass shooting in history

By Jordi Bou

February 5, 2025 - Shootings in Swedish schools are rare, but violent crime in the country has surged in recent years to record one of the highest per capita rate of gun violence in Europe.

A shooting at an adult education campus in central Sweden on Tuesday left at least 11 people dead and injured an undisclosed number of others, in what the prime minister called the worst mass shooting in the country’s history. The suspect was among the dead.

Officers say the suspect had no links to gangs and is thought to have acted “without any ideological motive"”

But Sweden is the only European country where fatal shootings have risen significantly since 2000, leaping from one of the lowest rates of gun violence on the continent to one of the highest in less than a decade.

While the country has strict gun laws, criminologists have linked a rise in shootings to the illegal drug trade and stockpiles of firearms smuggled in from postwar Balkan countries, Eastern Europe and Turkey. Gangs are also known to groom and recruit children as young as 11 to be contract killers, the police say.

The record for the highest number of shootings was set in 2022, with 391 episodes, police figures show.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 05/02/2025; STORY: Graphic News; PICTURES: Getty Images
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