A shooting at an adult education centre on Tuesday killed 11 people, according to Swedish police.
Authorities say it the country’s bloodiest gun incident in what the prime minister described as a “painful day.”
Police said the gunman was among those dead, and a search for other potential casualties was ongoing at the school in Orebro.
The gunman’s motivation was not immediately clear.
The shooting took place in Orebro, some 200 km (125 miles) west of Stockholm, at the Risbergska school for adults who did not complete their formal education or failed to get the grades to continue to higher education.
Sweden’s police website reported that as of Tuesday there were eleven deaths and number of injured was unclear.
The shooting took place in Orebro, some 200 km (125 miles) west of Stockholm, at the Risbergska school for adults who did not complete their formal education or failed to get the grades to continue to higher education. It is located on a campus that also houses schools for children.
Police said it was still going through the crime scene and had searched several addresses in Orebro after the attack.
Late on Tuesday, police vans and personnel were still outside an apartment building in central Orebro that had been raided earlier.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said it was the worst mass shooting in Swedish history.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed her sympathy on X, saying: “In this dark hour, we stand with the people of Sweden.”
Many students in Sweden’s adult school system are immigrants seeking to improve basic education and gain degrees to help them find jobs in the Nordic country while also learning Swedish.
Sweden has been struggling with a wave of shootings and bombings caused by an endemic gang crime problem that has seen the country of 10 million people record by far the highest per capita rate of gun violence in the EU in recent years.
However, fatal attacks at schools are rare.
Ten people were killed in seven incidents of deadly violence at schools between 2010 and 2022, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention.
Sweden has a high level of gun ownership by European standards, mainly linked to hunting, though it is much lower than in the United States, while the gang crime wave has highlighted the high incidence of illegal weapons.
