In the Swedish city of Norrköping, about 160 kilometers south of Stockholm, three people were shot during riots on Sunday. A police spokesperson confirmed this to several Swedish media† The victims were most likely hit by warning shots from police officers. None of them would be in mortal danger.
It has been restless in several Swedish cities for four days in a row. The reason is plans by the far-right Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan to burn the Koran in public places. The first meeting was scheduled for Thursday afternoon in Linköping, near Norrköping, and that same day dozens of supporters and opponents faced each other. The atmosphere soon turned grim: young masked men set fire to cars and attacked officers. Three officers were injured.
In the following days, riots broke out in various cities because of announced Koran burnings. Protesters clashed with police on Friday ahead of a politician’s rally in Örebro, some 200 kilometers west of Stockholm. At least nine officers were injured, including when they were pelted with stones.
On Saturday, dozens of rioters again took to the streets. In the southern town of Landskrona, about a hundred protesters threw stones at the police and set cars and garbage cans on fire. Paludan himself would not have been spared in the riots either. According to Swedish media, he was slightly injured when someone threw a stone against his leg.
Anti-Islam
The forty-year-old lawyer founded the Danish political party Stram Kurs (Harde Lijn) in 2017. The anti-Islam and anti-immigration party, according to its website “Denmark’s most patriotic political party”, did not get enough votes for a seat in the Danish parliament in 2019 and has no local or regional branches. It is not clear how many members Stram Kurs has.
It is not the first time that Paludan has caused unrest in society. In 2020, Stram Kurs also hosted a Koran-burning rally, in a Malmö suburb, and that announcement sparked violent riots.