Cops probe another blast in southern Sweden
Police in southern Sweden are investigating after residents in Arlöv north of Malmö were shaken by the latest in a series of powerful explosions in the area just after midnight on Wednesday.
Nobody was injured in the blast, which took place in the early hours of Wednesday. But the powerful explosion, which is believed to have been caused by a hand grenade, shattered several windows of the housing block.
Officers and forensic teams were called to the Byggmästargatan street in Arlöv north of Malmö at around 1am to investigate. They later announced that a potential connection between the blast and a shooting that took place in the town earlier on Tuesday evening was being looked into.
“We're of course looking at whether or not there is a connection to the shooting. I can't say if that's the case, but it's not being ruled out,” Magnus Lefèvre of southern Sweden's police force told the Sydsvenskan newspaper.
Earlier in the evening a witness told the regional daily that a person on a motorcycle had fired two gunshots at a car not far from the scene of the explosion. However, officers called out to investigate were able to find neither suspects nor anyone who had been injured.
Windows shattered in Wednesday morning's blast. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
Wednesday morning's blast follows just two days after another explosion in the Augustenborg area of central Malmö on Tuesday. They both come in the wake of a wave of violence in Sweden's third largest city and its surrounding areas.
Over the past two months there have been a number of shootings, explosions and cars and buildings set on fire as well as other incidents involving hand grenades being thrown.
A week ago a man in his twenties died in a fatal shooting in Arlöv. Two men, 27 and 41 years old, were still being held in police custody on Wednesday on suspicion of murder. Police said at the time the incident could not be linked to recent gang-violence in the area.
Regional police have put the rising violence down to an increased import of illegal weapons and last week called for tougher border controls on the Öresund bridge between Sweden and Denmark in a bid to tackle the problem.
“What makes us notice criminality more is the amount of illegal weapons in the city. We seize far more weapons and we notice that they are much more accessible than before,” Mats Karlsson from Malmö police told Danish newspaper Berlingske.
Police also announced in June that they were stepping up their presence in known trouble areas and said that around 30 people believed to be from criminal backgrounds were being tracked by officers.
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Nobody was injured in the blast, which took place in the early hours of Wednesday. But the powerful explosion, which is believed to have been caused by a hand grenade, shattered several windows of the housing block.
Officers and forensic teams were called to the Byggmästargatan street in Arlöv north of Malmö at around 1am to investigate. They later announced that a potential connection between the blast and a shooting that took place in the town earlier on Tuesday evening was being looked into.
“We're of course looking at whether or not there is a connection to the shooting. I can't say if that's the case, but it's not being ruled out,” Magnus Lefèvre of southern Sweden's police force told the Sydsvenskan newspaper.
Earlier in the evening a witness told the regional daily that a person on a motorcycle had fired two gunshots at a car not far from the scene of the explosion. However, officers called out to investigate were able to find neither suspects nor anyone who had been injured.
Windows shattered in Wednesday morning's blast. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
Wednesday morning's blast follows just two days after another explosion in the Augustenborg area of central Malmö on Tuesday. They both come in the wake of a wave of violence in Sweden's third largest city and its surrounding areas.
Over the past two months there have been a number of shootings, explosions and cars and buildings set on fire as well as other incidents involving hand grenades being thrown.
A week ago a man in his twenties died in a fatal shooting in Arlöv. Two men, 27 and 41 years old, were still being held in police custody on Wednesday on suspicion of murder. Police said at the time the incident could not be linked to recent gang-violence in the area.
Regional police have put the rising violence down to an increased import of illegal weapons and last week called for tougher border controls on the Öresund bridge between Sweden and Denmark in a bid to tackle the problem.
“What makes us notice criminality more is the amount of illegal weapons in the city. We seize far more weapons and we notice that they are much more accessible than before,” Mats Karlsson from Malmö police told Danish newspaper Berlingske.
Police also announced in June that they were stepping up their presence in known trouble areas and said that around 30 people believed to be from criminal backgrounds were being tracked by officers.
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