Police and emergency services work at the high school in Fagersta, central Sweden. (Photos: AFP)
An 18-year-old man armed with a sword attacked students at a Swedish high school on Friday, killing one teenage girl and injuring three including two teenage boys.
Police shot and detained the suspect, with media reporting the attacker was a former student at the school.
The incident occurred on Friday afternoon at the Brinell high school in the central Swedish town of Fagersta, which has about 13,000 residents. The school had just reopened after summer recess, and for some students, it was their first day.
Police told a press conference that the suspect was an 18-year-old man whom they shot and took into custody on suspicion of murder.
Local police chief Tommy Alriksson said officers responded quickly to the school, which has 450 students aged 16 to 20.
"The first patrol entered and let us know that the perpetrator was subdued with gunfire," he said.
The local health authority said two victims were teenage boys who were severely injured. A third injured person was released from hospital.
Police special forces work at the scene.
Police are investigating whether a TikTok account that posted a picture of a sword 20 minutes before the assault belonged to the suspect, the source told Reuters. According to the Dagens Nyheter newspaper, the image appeared to have been taken in a restroom at the school.
Before it was taken down on Friday, the month-old account contained videos that referred to two mass violence attacks in Sweden and to Norwegian far-right mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik.
It also referenced a 2015 attack in which a masked swordsman killed a teaching assistant and two boys at a school in Trollhattan, western Sweden, before being shot dead by police.
"The investigators are looking into various online communities which might have egged on the suspect to carry out the attack," the police source said.
Prosecutors on Saturday ordered the man's detention on suspicion of murder and several counts of attempted murder.
"The investigation is at an intense stage. We are conducting interrogations and gathering information, but I cannot go into specifics," Prosecutor Ann-Sofie Trossing told Reuters.
Residents leave flowers and candles at a makeshift memorial outside the school.
Witnesses from the school told reporters of their experience.
"First it was just a regular day really. But then ... I saw a guy all covered in blood, at least down his back anyway. Then I saw the police and they flooded in," one Brinell student, Nellie, told Reuters alongside her mother Agnes Strandberg after a five-hour lockdown at the school.
Another student, Abdulrahem Salmo, said he had seen a victim with a bloody stab wound in the arm.
"Then people called the police and we just all ran from there because we were afraid," he told SVT.
Several other schools and public buildings in Fagersta were also initially locked down.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Social Democratic Party leader Magdalena Andersson visit the makeshift memorial outside the school.
Fagersta Mayor Asa-Marta Sjostrom said the small town was shaken.
"Our and the school's main focus right now is to take care of our students and our employees," she told reporters. "We are working together ... to create safety and provide support to those who need it."
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson canceled a speech he was due to hold on Saturday, news agency TT reported.
"Our thoughts are with all those affected," he wrote in a post on social media platform X.
Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf said in the statement released by the royal household that he received news of the attack "with dismay and sadness."
Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson, whose center-left coalition leads opinion polls for next month's parliamentary election, said: "All of Sweden stands together with Fagersta at this difficult time."