LONDON:

A record 48 people were shot dead in Sweden this year, Swedish media reported on Friday.

The latest shooting happened on Thursday evening in Kristianstad when a man was shot dead, the police say.

– Unfortunately, we cannot say more than that he is in his 20s and we have no suspects at the moment, says Mikael Lind, officer on duty at Stockholm Region South, to Smalandsposten.

This means that Sweden has already reached a new record in terms of fatal shootings and the number is expected to be significantly higher before the end of the year.

Lind stated that there has been an increase in shootings but he could not give an exact number on “how much it has increased or how it looks in other regions, but in our region (Stockholm) it has definitely increased.”

Most of the shootings are believed to have taken place in the Stockholm region, which has a major impact on the police’s resources.

According to police statistics, the previous highest number was in 2020 when a total of 47 people were killed and the year after that the number of people killed was 45.

The general number of shootings is believed to be 273 as of September 1 this year, compared to 344 in 2021 and 379 in 2020, local media reported.

In recent years, gang-related shootings have escalated and spread across the Nordic country with authorities struggling to contain the war-like violence.

According to a report that the Crime Prevention Council published last year, Sweden is at the top of the European ranking in terms of fatal shootings.