Our thoughts are with Sweden, says Israeli president after truck-ramming attack

Reuven Rivlin asks international community to unite against terrorism; no known Israeli casualties in incident

President Reuven Rivlin, Jerusalem, April 4, 2017. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
President Reuven Rivlin, Jerusalem, April 4, 2017. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

President Reuven Rivlin on Friday said Israel’s “thoughts were with the people of Stockholm” after a vehicular terror attack earlier in the day at a busy department store killed at least three people and injured numerous others.

“Terror is terror: the whole free world must unite against it,” Rivlin wrote on Twitter, hours after the attack.

Earlier Friday, a large beer truck crashed into an upscale department store in central Stockholm in what Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven called a terror attack. One person was arrested.

There were no known Israeli casualties in the attack, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.

“Sweden has been attacked,” Lofven said in a nationally televised press conference. “This indicates that it is an act of terror.”

People in the downtown area fled in panic, and Stockholm’s Central Station for trains and the subway, which is a few hundred yards from the scene, was evacuated.

Broadcaster SVT said at least five people were killed in the attack while Swedish radio reported three dead, but police could not immediately confirm those reports. The country’s intelligence agency said a large number of people were wounded in the crash.

Emergency personnel load a person into an ambulance, centre, at the scene after a truck crashed into a department store injuring several people in central Stockholm, Sweden, Friday April 7, 2017. (Fredrik Sandberg/TT News Agency via AP)
Emergency personnel load a person into an ambulance, centre, at the scene after a truck crashed into a department store injuring several people in central Stockholm, Sweden, Friday April 7, 2017. (Fredrik Sandberg/TT News Agency via AP)

Live television footage showed smoke coming out of the upscale Ahlens department store on Drottninggatan Street, which the truck smashed into. The department store is part of Sweden-wide chain.

Police said there were no indications of shooting in the area, as Swedish broadcaster SVT reported earlier.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The Swedish prime minister said one person was arrested, but gave no further details.

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