Sword attack in Fagersta: Police investigate TikTok account and online networks
An attacker killed a 17-year-old girl at a school in Fagersta and seriously injured two teenagers. Police are checking links to extremist online communities.
Sword attack at school in Fagersta: Suspect in custody, TikTok account under investigation
As Google News CH — Crime reports, a man attacked a school in the central Swedish city of Fagersta with a sword, killing a 17-year-old girl and seriously injuring two further teenagers before being arrested by police. The parents of the deceased student confirmed their daughter's death to the local newspaper Fagersta-Posten.
Police are investigating whether a TikTok account that published a photograph of a sword approximately 20 minutes before the attack belonged to the suspect. According to the newspaper Dagens Nyheter, the image was apparently taken in a school toilet. The account, which was roughly one month old, was deleted on Friday.
Before deletion, the account contained videos with references to two cases of mass violence in Sweden as well as to Norwegian right-wing extremist mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik. One of the videos referred to the 2015 attack in which a masked sword-wielder at a school in Trollhättan killed a teaching assistant and two pupils before being shot dead by police.
"The investigators are looking at various online communities that may have incited the suspect to commit the act," a police source told Reuters.
Party leaders suspend election campaign
Several party leaders cancelled planned appearances on Saturday. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and opposition leader Magdalena Andersson travelled to Fagersta to offer condolences to the affected family and visit the injured. "What should never happen has happened again," Kristersson said to reporters in Fagersta.
The prosecuting authority ordered the detention of the man on suspicion of murder as well as several cases of attempted murder. "The investigation is in an intensive phase. We are conducting interviews and gathering information, but I cannot give details," said prosecutor Ann-Sofie Trossing to Reuters.
Police clarified on Saturday that the suspect was not shot during the arrest, contrary to earlier reports. "Service weapons were used, but the perpetrator was not injured during the arrest and did not require medical treatment," a police spokesperson told the daily newspaper Aftonbladet.
Sweden's worst mass shooting occurred in February 2025 at a school in Örebro, when a gunman killed ten people before shooting himself.
Source: Google News CH — Crime (de)