Arrested suspect is likely driver in truck attack, say Swedish police

Man detained over fatal ramming in Stockholm said to be a 39-year-old IS supporter of Uzbek origin

By AFP 8 April 2017, 9:58 am
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Damage to a store is revealed after the stolen truck, which was driven through a crowd outside a department in Stockholm on April 7, 2017, was taken away on April 8. (AFP Photo/Odd Andersen)
Damage to a store is revealed after the stolen truck, which was driven through a crowd outside a department in Stockholm on April 7, 2017, was taken away on April 8. (AFP Photo/Odd Andersen)

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Swedish police said Saturday that a man arrested on “suspicion of a terrorist crime” was likely to be the driver of a truck that plowed into a crowd of people in central Stockholm a day earlier.

“We suspect that the man who was arrested is the perpetrator,” Stockholm police spokesman Lars Bystrom told AFP.

The attack on Friday killed four people and injured 15, nine of them seriously.

Police had earlier said they had detained a man who “matched the description” of a photo released of a suspect wearing a dark hoodie and military green jacket.

Bystrom said the arrested man “could be the same person in the picture.”

According to the newspaper Aftonbladet, the individual in the photo is a 39-year-old man of Uzbek origin and a supporter of the Islamic State (IS) group.

If confirmed as a terror attack, it would be Sweden’s first such deadly assault.

The attack occurred just before 3:00 pm local time when a stolen beer truck slammed into the corner of the bustling Ahlens store and the popular pedestrian street Drottninggatan.

Friday’s attack was the latest in a string of similar assaults with vehicles in Europe, including in London, Berlin and the southern French city of Nice.

The rear of a truck, left, protrudes after it crashed into a department store killing several people in central Stockholm, Sweden, Friday April 7, 2017. (Anders Wiklund , TT News Agency via AP)
The rear of a truck, left, protrudes after it crashed into a department store killing several people in central Stockholm, Sweden, Friday April 7, 2017. (Anders Wiklund , TT News Agency via AP)

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