Man killed in Uppsala as gang conflict spikes

A man in his mid-20s was found with gunshot wounds in the Sala backe district of Uppsala in the early hours of Tuesday. He was taken to hospital where he was confirmed dead on arrival.

According to unconfirmed information published by public broadcaster SVT, the man was not the intended target and did not have any known links to criminal gangs.

SVT reports that the killer had instead meant to shoot a relative of gang leader Rawa Majid, also known as “the Kurdish fox”.

Police declined to comment on these rumours when approached by SVT.

It’s the third shooting in a short period of time in Uppsala, where a woman in her 60s was shot dead last week.

According to media reports, the woman was the mother of a high-profile member of the so-called Foxtrot gang, led by Majid. Her son was allegedly involved in an internal conflict with Majid.

Police are understood to believe a relative of Majid was the intended target of a shooting in the Stenhagen area of Uppsala late on Saturday, in a suspected revenge attack. No one was injured in that shooting.

Majid himself is currently at large in Turkey. SVT reports that he is suspected of being involved in several violent incidents in Sweden since the turn of the year, and is also suspected of being one of Sweden's most prolific drug smugglers.

Uppsala police on Tuesday launched a so-called “special incident” in response to the spate of violence in Uppsala. Known as a särskild händelse in Swedish, a special incident can be launched to deal with a range of issues which the relevant police unit needs extra help with.

It usually means that a temporary task force is set up to focus solely on the specified problem, and the chief of the task force is given powers to make decisions and allocate resources to the problem in question.

Uppsala police were set to hold a press conference late on Tuesday afternoon.