Sweden: Attacker Was 'Known to Authorities'

39-year-old Uzbek man is in custody
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 8, 2017 8:55 AM CDT
Sweden: Attacker Was 'Known to Authorities'
A street is cordoned off near a department store following Friday's suspected terror attack in central Stockholm, Sweden.   (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

The man accused of killing four people with a hijacked beer truck in Stockholm Friday is a 39-year-old from Uzbekistan who was a "marginal character" already known to authorities, officials in Sweden say. Police say they found a "suspect device" in the vehicle and they haven't ruled out the involvement of other people, the BBC reports. Ten people, including a child, are still in hospital after the attack on one of the city's main thoroughfares. Authorities believe the device may have burned the suspect instead of exploding when he drove through crowds on a pedestrianized street and crashed into a department store, the Guardian reports. Police say the suspect fled after the attack and was arrested in a northern suburb.

The AP reports that Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven made a point of walking through the city's streets and stopping to chat to people before laying flowers at the scene Saturday. " We must get through this. Life must go on," Lofven said. "We in Sweden want an open society." "Terrorists want us to be afraid, want us to change our behaviour, want us to not live our lives normally, but that is what we're going to do," Lofven said. "So terrorists can never defeat Sweden, never." There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack, though ISIS claimed similar attacks in cities including London and Nice, reports Reuters. (More Sweden stories.)

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