Swedish police say one dead after sword attack at school
A sword attack at a Fagersta high school leaves one person dead and three wounded, with two in serious condition.
A Swedish flag hangs outside a store on a busy street as visitors walk past in the background in the old town of Stockholm, Sweden, on Jul 14, 2023. A man armed with a sword injured several people at a Swedish high school on Aug 21, 2026. (File photo: Reuters/Tom Little)
STOCKHOLM: Swedish police said Friday (Aug 21) that one person had died and three had been wounded after a sword-wielding attacker entered a high school in the town of Fagersta in central Sweden.
Local police chief Tommy Alriksson told journalists that one person had been found dead after police entered the school, having shot and arrested the assailant.
Alriksson added that as well as the deceased, three people had been wounded, two of them seriously.
Earlier Friday, the healthcare authority said two boys, both aged between 12 and 17, were being treated in hospital.
The motive for the attack was not immediately clear.
FORMER STUDENT
Aftonbladet newspaper reported that the attacker had been shot in the leg by police. It also cited unidentified sources as saying the attacker was an 18-year-old former student of the school.
Swedish broadcaster SVT also reported that the perpetrator had a previous assault conviction and wore a helmet and carried a sword - reminiscent of an October 2015 school attack in the western town of Trollhattan in which a sword-wielding 21-year-old killed three people in a racially-motivated attack.
That time, the attacker wore black clothes, a Darth Vader-like mask and a German World War II helmet.
Images on public broadcaster SVT on Friday showed multiple ambulances and police cars parked outside the school as well as a police helicopter.
The school has around 450 students, in a town of around 12,000 inhabitants.
News agency TT reported that worried parents had gathered outside the school.
"It feels a little bit better when you're at least a little closer," mother Agnes told the news agency, explaining that her daughter had called her to say that the students had been locked in.
She had learned her daughter and fellow students were being kept in the school's library.
In May, the municipality announced that students at Brinellskolan had been sent home following a threat to the school.
SERIOUS INCIDENT
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told AFP in a written statement that "a serious incident has taken place today at a school in Fagersta, just after the summer holidays."
"There are reports of people being injured. We do not yet know what lies behind the attack, but we do know that the police are working extremely intensively," Kristersson said.
Kristersson was due to hold a speech in Stockholm in the evening but told media he was cancelling it to focus on the incident.
Magdalena Andersson, leader of the opposition Social Democrats, lamented the "terrible news" from Fagersta, in a post on X.
"My thoughts are with those affected and everyone involved," she said.
"When violence takes place at a school, I know it impacts everyone in our country. All of Sweden stands with Fagersta in this difficult time."
Sweden has suffered some high-profile attacks at educational institutions.
In February 2025, a 35-year-old man killed 10 people at an adult education centre in Orebro -- Sweden's worst mass shooting.
Police said it had been motivated by the killer's wish to end his life because of financial and psychological woes.
In March 2022, an 18-year-old student stabbed two teachers to death at a secondary school in the southern city of Malmo.
And in October 2015, three people were killed in a racially motivated attack at a school in the western town of Trollhattan by a sword-wielding assailant who was killed by police.
