Sweden: Man dies in shooting at Malmö shopping center
A man has died and a woman is in hospital after a shooting at a shopping center in Sweden, the police say.
People at the Emporia shopping center in Malmö fled in panic after hearing about 20 shots being fired, TV4 reports.
Police have arrested a teenage boy and believe the shooting is related to gang tensions.
It comes as Sweden gears up for a parliamentary election next month, where gang violence tops voters’ concerns.
Sweden still has one of the highest rates of gun homicides in Europe.
An official Swedish government report published last year stated that four out of every million inhabitants die in shootings every year in Sweden. In Europe, the average is 1.6 people per million inhabitants.
This year, the shootings have also spread outside the nation’s largest cities, as gang violence — which police say is often related to the shootings — spreads further afield.
The issue has become crucial for Swedish voters, with 41% of them saying crime is their biggest concern, according to Gothenburg University’s Society, Opinion and Media Institute, cited by Reuters.
This could prove problematic for the ruling Social Democrats, who critics say have failed to stem the rise in gang crime during their eight years in power.
However, the ruling party says further measures targeting criminal gangs as well as the expansion of police assistance will tackle the problem.