Two people were killed and two wounded in a shooting at a bar northwest of Stockholm, police said Friday, in the latest outburst of deadly violence in Sweden.
In a statement, police said that a man in his 20s and another in his 70s died Friday of injuries sustained in the shooting late Thursday at a pub in Sandviken some 100 miles northwest of Stockholm.
"We suspect that one person was targeted and that the other three were at the scene for various reasons, but had nothing to do with it," spokesman Magnus Jansson Klarin told Swedish news agency TT. He added that the suspected target was among the two who died. No arrests have been made, police said. It was not known whether the others were patrons or pub employees.
"It’s bad enough that the gangs shoot each other to death, but when completely innocent people end up in the line of fire, it’s absolutely horrific," Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Kristersson said, according to TT.
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On its Facebook page, the pub said it would remain closed through the weekend.
Feuding criminal gangs have become a growing problem in Sweden, with an increasing number of drive-by shootings, bombings and grenade attacks. So far this year, there have been 261 shootings, 36 people have died and 73 were wounded.
Earlier this month, a 13-year-old boy was found shot in the head in woods, near his home near Stockholm. Prosecutor Lisa dos Santos said Thursday that his death was a chilling example of "gross and completely reckless gang violence."
The violence reportedly is fueled by a feud over drugs and arms between two gangs, led by a dual Turkish-Swedish man who lives in Turkey and his former lieutenant.
Sweden’s center-right government has been tightening laws to tackle gang-related crime, while the head of Sweden’s police said earlier this month that warring gangs had brought an "unprecedented" wave of violence to the Scandinavian country.
