Swedish Jewish community closes synagogues amid terror threats

Synagogues throughout Sweden have shut down temporarily in response to the country raising its official terror threat assessment level.

According to the World Jewish Congress, Wednesday’s action was a precautionary measure. A community official declined to say if there was a specific threat against Jews in the country.

Lena Posner-Korosi, the chairwoman of Sweden’s Official Council of Jewish Communities, said the security situation will be reassessed daily. On Wednesday, Sweden raised its terror threat status to “high,” the second-highest level.

About 20,000 Jews live in Sweden, according to the European Jewish Congress.

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Swedish police said they were hunting for a man wanted for “planning a terrorist act.” Some media reports said he was an Iraqi who has fought in Syria and was wanted for activities in Sweden, but there was no connection to last week’s Paris attack.

An arrest warrant has been issued for the suspect, whose identity has not been revealed, the head of domestic intelligence and counter-terrorism Anders Thornberg told a press conference in Stockholm.

“The man is being actively searched for,” he said, refusing to confirm media reports the suspect is an Iraqi who has fought in Syria.

The suspect is wanted over his activities in Sweden and there is so far no link to the bloody attacks in Paris on Friday which left 129 people dead, according to Swedish intelligence service Sapo.

Sweden on Wednesday raised its national terror threat status to “high,” the second-highest level on a five-point scale, following an assessment by the National Centre for Terrorist Threat Assessment.

Sweden’s security service SAPO said in a statement the move was done in response to “concrete information.”

“The attacks in Paris on November 13 show that IS may have an increased ability to carry out even relatively complex attacks in Europe. Individuals may be inspired by these attacks,” Sapo said.

NCT director Mats Sandberg told the news conference that the Islamic State group, which has claimed the Paris attacks, “considers Sweden a legitimate target.”

Mona Sahlin, Sweden’s national coordinator for protecting democracy against violent extremism, said she was “worried” that violent attacks “could actually happen in Sweden.”

“We need to do more both on the repressive side, we have laws that are not enough and the government is well aware of that. And there are parts of Swedish society who don’t consider that jihadism is a problem here. So we need to do more,” she said.

Denmark also raised its threat status on Wednesday, but its synagogues remain open, according to the World Jewish Congress. In February, a gunman opened fire on Copenhagen’s Great Synagogue, killing a security guard and wounding two others.