Instead of a book, a grenade next to your bed. Or in the backpack when travelling by bus. Sweden is troubled by grenades. A recent incident with a grenade thrown into an ordinary shop, has put the light on teenagers involved in the Swedish gang wars, again.
“Those who transport or keep hand grenades or other explosive objects not only put themselves at risk, but also their family members and the general public,” Chief of Operations of the Swedish National Bomb Protection Unit (Nationella bombskyddet) Jon Wåhlander is quoted on the website of the Swedish police.
Wåhlander’s quote puts the finger on an increasing problem in Swedish society: weapons and explosives in the hands of teenagers. On 24 July, one of them threw a hand grenade into a shop in the city of Södertälje, severely wounding a 50-year-old woman. Officers were quick in arresting the teenage suspect, and took another person into custody suspected of aiding in the crime.
Hand grenades vs home-made explosives
The incident in Södertälje was not the first involving a hand grenade, some have been thrown at or into houses and shops before, but that somebody got hurt in such an incident in a shop is kind of new.
According to experts, home-made explosives are still more common, but apparently hand grenades are on the rise. More often than not, teenagers do the dirty jobs for criminals higher up in the gang chain of command, according to earlier reports in Swedish and international media.
Gang shootings still common
Apart from the hand grenades, gang shootings are still common too. According to the police’s own statistics, there have been 148 shootings so far this year. In the areas around Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö the most, with each region roughly between 30 and 40 shootings. Twenty people have been killed by gun violence so far, of which 8 in the Stockholm area. Another 26 were hurt.
On trial for three murders
Just this week a 17-year-old boy from Linköping has been declared sane and will be tried for the shooting and killing of a 40-year-old dad in a villa near Telefonplan in Stockholm, as well as the shooting and killing of two women in a house in Tullinge. In both cases children were inside the houses where the shootings took place, with a mother and her child hurt by bullets at the Telefonplan shooting. As the 17-year-old has no psychologic disorder to stand trial, according to his examiners, he could go to prison. At the time of the verdict he might be of age.
In many other cases, with suspects as young as 13 years old, they often get youth sentences, meaning society service or other relatively light punishments as minors cannot be sentenced to jail in Sweden.
Couple transported bomb at Stockholm Central station
However, it all not only teenagers that are involved. On 12 July a couple in their thirties from Central Sweden (Gästrike) was arrested at Stockholm Central Station transporting a bomb hidden in a thermos canister. The 30-year-old male and 35-year-old female suspects already have an extensive crime sheet, according to well-informed media. Parts of Central Station were closed down while the police took action, but details of how the police got the intelligence has not been revealed. The current theory is that the couple was asked to deliver the thermos bomb to others further north in the country, where it would be used against rivals of a gang. | © 2024 Marcel Burger, nordicreporter.com. Featured photo by Rama (CC)