A hijacked beer truck crashed into an upscale department store in central Stockholm on Friday, killing four people and injuring 15, police said. Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven called the crash a terror attack.
The Stockholm police spokesman said one person had been detained in connection with the attack.
Live television footage showed smoke coming out of the Ahlens store into which the truck crashed at 3 p.m.
People in the downtown area fled in panic. Authorities evacuated the city’s nearby Central Station, which links regional trains with the Swedish capital’s subway system. All trains to and from the main station were halted and two large shopping malls in the capital were shut down.
“Sweden has been attacked,” Mr. Lofven said in a nationally televised press conference. “This indicates that it is an act of terror.”
Swedish police officers inspect the site of the attack after a truck crashed into a department store at Drottninggatan in the centre of Stockholm on April 7, 2017.
Earlier broadcaster SVT said at least five people were killed in the attack while Swedish radio reported three dead, but police could not immediately confirm either report.
The country’s intelligence agency said a large number of people were wounded in the crash.
“We stood inside a shoe store and heard something ... and then people started to scream,” witness Jan Granroth told the Aftonbladet daily. “I looked out of the store and saw a big truck.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
“We have no contact with the person or persons who drove the truck,” Sweden’s top police chief, Dan Eliasson, told reporters. Police released a grainy picture of a suspect.
Swedish beer maker Spendrups said one of its trucks had been hijacked earlier in the day.
“It is one of our delivery trucks. Someone jumped into the truck and drove it away while the driver was unloading his delivery at a restaurant,” Spendrups spokesman Marten Luth said.
(With AFP inputs)
