Sweden gang violence soars as high immigration blamed

Once a model of cohesion and calm, the country is losing its fight with crime. Jakob Illeborg discovers what went wrong

- Jakob Illeborg

Linda, a Swede in her forties, is standing in the doorway with her children. She looks visibly upset and tired.

"I didn't sleep much last night, I can't take it anymore," she tells The Independent. "The murders, the bombs, the constant police presence on the ground and police helicopters in the air. Me and my children need to get out of here. We need to move."

Linda lives in a block of flats in Hasselby, a suburb west of Stockholm, where a bomb exploded on 25 September. Now, the day after, there is debris and broken glass everywhere. The bombed-out apartment next door is cordoned off. Police are still searching the premises.

"I was in my home on Monday night," says Linda. "Luckily, the children were not home yet. I heard a massive blast and then loud screaming. I ran into the street and could hear the moans of a man inside the flat that had been hit. Police arrived and took him and two other injured away."

The bloody gang war in Sweden has further intensified this week, with 11 killed this month alone. On Wednesday evening, a 20-year-old woman died in Uppsala, north of Stockholm, after an explosion ripped through the house she was staying in. She was not connected to the feud. Two young men also died from their wounds after being shot south of the capital.

Like several others in Hasselby, Linda doesn't want her family name published in the newspaper. There is a fear of reprisals from the violent gangs that terrorise many Swedish cities. In 2022, there were 391 shootings in Sweden, 62 of which were fatal, making Sweden the gun murder capital of Europe.

"I am not so worried about my girls, but I do worry about the boys. My oldest is 13. I need to protect him. He can't get involved in this terrible gang war," says Linda.