Two powerful explosions ripped through dwellings in central Sweden, injuring at least three people and damaging buildings☂, with bricks and window sections left spread ou🔥tside.
Late Monday, an explosion occurred in Hasselby, a suburb of the capital, Stockholm. In the early hours of Tuesday, a blast in Linkoping, some 175 km (110 miles) to the⭕ southwest, ripped the facade off a three-story building, leaving debris strewn across a parking area.
It was n🧸ot ꦓknown whether the blasts were related to each other.
Swedish radio said Tuesday that the explosion in Linkoping was connected to an ongoing feud between criminal gangs, a growing problem in Sweden with drive-by shootings and bombings. Two gangs, one led by a Swedish-Turkish dual national who lives in Turkey, the other by his former lieutenant, are reportedly fighting over dr🐷ugs and weapons.
So far this year, there have been 261 shootings, 36 people have died a💦nd 73 were wounded. The count doesn't include the latest explosions.
Police said that residents in the affected🌳 area in Linkoping were evacuated to a nearby sports facility. In Hasselby, three people were taken to a hospital - their conditions were not known.
No one has been arrested in connection with the two explosions, po♉lice said.
Earlier this month, a 13-year-old boy was found shot in the head in woods not far from his home near Sto𒈔ckholm. A prosecutor said his death was a chilling example of “gross and completely reckless gang violence”.
On Sept 22, two people were killed and two wounded when a gunman opened fire in a crowded ba🌳r northwest of Stockholm. One of the dead, a 20-year-old man, was the shooter's likely target, police said, while the other three were beli🤪eved to be bystanders.
The motive remained unclear. Police said the shooting could possibly be part of a local personal conflict and there was some unce🅷rtainty w♍hether it was connected to the ongoing feud.
Sweden's centre-right governm❀ent has been tightening laws to tackle gang-related crime, while the head of Sweden's police said earlier this month that warring gangs had brought an “unprecedented” wave of violence to the Scandinavian country.
