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A man has been arrested "on suspicion of terrorist crimes" after a truck crashed into a crowd in central Stockholm, killing four people and injuring 15 others.
Key points:
- Sweden's PM says "everything points to fact this is a terrorist attack"
- Police haven't confirmed if detained man is suspected driver
- Security has been heightened at Sweden's borders, police said
The attack sent terrified shoppers running for their lives as the stolen truck rammed pedestrians and crashed into a department store shortly after 2:00pm local time on Friday.
"I turned around and saw a big truck coming towards me. It swerved from side to side. It didn't look out of control, it was trying to hit people," said Glen Foran, an Australian tourist.
"It hit people, it was terrible. It hit a pram with a kid in it, demolished it."
Swedish prosecutors said the detained man had been arrested on the strongest degree of suspicion of committing a terror crime.
Sweden's legal system has several degrees regarding the strength of suspicion.
"One person has been arrested on suspicion of terrorist crimes through murder," a spokesperson at the prosecutors office said.
Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported that a second man had been arrested and he had a connection to the previously arrested person.
But police have declined to comment on whether it had arrested any additional suspects.
Warning: This story contains graphic images
"Sweden has been attacked. Everything points to the fact that this is a terrorist attack," Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told reporters.
"We are determined never to let the values that we treasure — democracy, human rights and freedom — to be undermined by hatred."
Sweden's King Carl Gustaf said in a statement: "Our thoughts are going out to those that were affected, and to their families."
Former Gold Coast resident Sabina Allotta, who witnessed the attack unfold from her office window 150 metres away, said it was "surreal".
"[I] just saw all these people just start piling out on the streets and ... then police cars driving along footpaths … helicopters turned up very quickly," she told the ABC.
"[There was] just a very, very eerie feeling that something was seriously wrong."
Australia's Foreign Affairs Department (DFAT) said they were providing consular assistance to one Australian who was in the vicinity of the incident but was physically unharmed.
The Australian embassy in Stockholm is cooperating with local authorities to determine if any Australians were affected by the attack.
'An attack on us all'
At the scene, bloody tyre tracks on Drottninggatan (Queen Street) showed where the truck had passed.
The truck had been stolen while making a beer delivery to a tapas bar further up Drottninggatan, Spendrups Brewery spokesman Marten Lyth said.
A masked person jumped into the cab, started the truck and drove away.
"We were standing by the traffic lights at Drottninggatan and then we heard some screaming and saw a truck coming," a witness who declined to be named said.
National news agency TT said those hurt included the delivery driver, who had tried to stop the hijack.
In Brussels, the European Union offered Sweden support and solidarity.
"An attack on any of our member states is an attack on us all," said European Union chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker.
"One of Europe's most vibrant and colourful cities appears to have been struck by those wishing it and our very way of life harm."
Stockholmers have opened up their homes and offered lifts to people who were unable to get home or needed a place to stay.
Police said it has heightened security at Swedish borders, and police in neighbouring Norway's largest cities and at Oslo's airport will carry weapons until further notice.
Vehicle attack the latest to hit a European city
The attack was the latest to hit the Nordic region after shootings in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2015 that killed three people, and the 2011 bombing and shooting by far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik that killed 77 people in Norway.
Several attacks in which trucks or cars have driven into crowds have taken place in other parts of Europe in the past year.
Just last month, a suspected Islamist terrorist carried out an attack on London's Westminster Bridge and outside the Houses of Parliament, killing four people and injuring 40 more.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack in Berlin in December, when a truck smashed through a Christmas market, killing 12 people.
The group also said they were behind an attack in Nice, France, last July when a truck drove down a busy street and killed 86 people celebrating Bastille Day.
Al Qaeda in 2010 urged its followers to use trucks as a weapon.
Neutral Sweden has not fought a war in more than 200 years, but its military has taken part in UN peacekeeping missions in a number of conflict zones in recent years, including Iraq, Mali and Afghanistan.
ABC/Reuters
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, emergency-incidents, disasters-and-accidents, sweden
First posted