Swedish king leads mourning after school massacre

AFP | Stockholm

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Sweden yesterday mourned the victims of its worst mass killing as police indicated that the gunman likely shot himself after killing 10 people at an adult education centre.

Candles were lit and flowers laid in front of the cordoned off Campus Risbergska school for young adults in Orebro as residents flocked to pay their respects.

“We are very shocked,” King Carl XVI Gustaf told reporters, after he and Queen Silvia laid flowers near the school, highlighting the country’s struggle to understand events.

“All of Sweden is mourning today.” Police have not given details on the gunman or his motive. But they confirmed that 11 people, “including the killer”, died in Tuesday’s shooting spree in the town west of Stockholm.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who also visited the site yesterday, has described the massacre as “the worst mass shooting in Swedish history”.

“Tuesday, February 4 will forever mark a dark day in Swedish history,” he said in a statement.

Asked about reports that the gunman turned his gun on himself, Orebro police chief Roberto Eid Forest told reporters that “there is a lot to indicate that”.

Forest told a press conference the suspect was dead when police reached him.

Police were working to establish the reason for the killing spree, and had not seen an indication of an “ideological motive”, he said. The suspect was not previously known to police.

“I can’t say more about the suspected perpetrator, other than that he was obviously motivated and had access to firearms,” Lars Wiren, regional police chief, told AFP.

“When the first police officers entered the building shots were fired, likely at the police, but no one of our staff is injured,” Wiren added.