Kristersson said he will meet the national police chief and the army’s commander-in-chief on Friday “to see how the army can help police fight the gangs.” In recent years, Sweden has been in the grip of bloody conflicts between gangs over arms and drug trafficking, with revenge attacks on both sides.
Apartments and homes throughout the country are regularly hit by explosions. Shootings no longer only occur in deprived neighborhoods, but also take place in public places.
“We are going to hunt for the gangs. We are going to beat the gangs,” Kristersson said in a nationally televised speech on Thursday evening, after three people were killed the night before. The rising number of murders has shocked the Swedish population. “Sweden has never seen anything like this. No other country in Europe sees anything like this,” the Prime Minister said.
In 2022, Sweden recorded 391 shootings, 62 of which were fatal.