Police and fire-fighters responded to 30 fires in several Stockholm suburbs overnight into Saturday as unrest continued for a sixth consecutive night.
However, there were no incidents of stone-throwing at fire-fighters or police, Stockholm police reported.
The overall situation was described as “calmer” in the greater Stockholm area, with one arrest that police labelled as attempted assault.
In the northern Stockholm suburb of Husby, where the rioting began on Sunday, there were no reports of unrest. The riots have been attributed to a police shooting on May 13 in Husby, in which a 69-year-old man was killed.
Immigrant groups accused police of being heavy handed. Police said the man was carrying a knife and that they shot him in self-defence.
Twenty-two people were briefly held for disturbing the peace in two suburbs in southern Stockholm. Police spokesman Kjell Lindgren told dpa he could not confirm media reports that they were part of a far-right group that had driven around in cars between different suburbs.
Two other cities, west and south-west of the capital, experienced unrest and vandalism.
At least two dozen youths, some wearing masks, threw stones at police and torched five vehicles and part of a school in Orebro, 200 kilometres west of Stockholm, police said on Saturday.
A police officer was treated after being hit by flying glass when a stone hit a police car, Orebro police said. The unrest was centred in a suburb with a large immigrant population. Youths interviewed by Swedish Radio said the unrest was copycat behaviour.
In Linkoping, 11 fires were reported in vehicles and two school buildings, but no arrests were made.
Eighty percent of Husby’s 12,000 residents are immigrants.
Unemployment is high in the suburb. A fire that destroyed about 20 cars in a garage in Akersberga, 30 kilometres north of Stockholm, was not linked to the recent unrest.
