Syrians and Bosnian among victims of gunman’s attack on Swedish school – BBC.com

Joel Gunter & Paul Kirby

In Orebro and London

Syrians and a Bosnian were among the 10 victims of a gunman who carried out the worst shooting in Swedish history, at a school in Orebro on Tuesday.

It was the first information about those murdered, and it came from two embassies rather than police, who said only that there were victims of a number of nationalities.

Police said the suspected gunman, named locally as 35-year-old Rickard Andersson, was found dead afterwards, with three guns by his side.

The regional police chief said police faced an “inferno” when they entered the school buildings: “Dead people, screams and smoke.”

Lars Wiren spoke of a scene of chaos at Risbergska school, with people running in and out of a very large complex that stretched over about 17,000 sq m.

Anna Bergqvist, the head of the police investigation, told the BBC police could confirm only that people of multiple nationalities and ages were caught up in the shooting.

One Bosnian national was killed and another wounded, the Bosnian embassy said. Ambassador Bojan Sosic laid flowers outside the school in Orebro on Thursday.

The Syrian embassy gave no details of the number of Syrians affected, but said: “We offer our sincere condolences and sympathies to the families of the victims, including dear Syrian citizens, and to the friendly Swedish people.”

However, it soon emerged that Salim Iskef, a 29-year-old Orthodox Christian who fled the war in Syria in 2015, was one of the 10 victims.

Santa Maria church in Orebro said his life had ended tragically in the shooting.

Jacob Kasselia, the priest at Orebro’s Syrian Orthodox church, told the BBC that Mr Iskef was a kind and thoughtful young man who had arrived from Aleppo in 2015 and was due to get married this summer.

Swedish reports said he had become a Swedish citizen.

The priest said Mr Iskef’s fiancée had been “very badly affected” by the murder.

“She is going through a very difficult, very dark experience,” Mr Kasselia said.

Mr Iskef’s aunt told Arabic-language website Alkompis he had made a video call to his mother to say he had been shot and asked her to look after his fiancée.

The Bosnian embassy said it had chosen to wait for official information from police, although it had relevant information from Orebro’s Bosnian community.

There has been some frustration in Orebro at the slow pace at which police have been releasing information about their inquiry.

“I find it odd, to say the least, that the police choose to withhold information that pertains to foreign citizens, from respective embassies,” Ambassador Sosic told the BBC. He described the Bosnian community as among the best integrated in Sweden.

Police in Orebro say the alarm was raised at 12:33 (11:33 GMT) on Tuesday and after about five minutes the first patrols had reached the school, which sits on a large education campus about 200km (124km) west of Stockholm.

Police chief Lars Wiren said 130 police officers had eventually reached the school and found an “inferno”.

He told the BBC that there was no evidence bombs had been detonated, but said there was thick smoke that could have come from the suspect setting fires or smoke grenades.

He said they believed the suspect had fired at police but that officers did not fire back. The gunman was found dead at the scene over an hour later.

Police investigator Anna Bergqvist said that the suspect had killed himself.

She confirmed that three guns were found at the scene next to the gunman, of a total of four known to be legally registered to the suspect.

However, she refused to comment on the types of guns or ammunition used.

Police remain tight-lipped about both the suspect and the possible motive behind the attack.

Anna Bergqvist explained that the delay in naming the suspect was because of the wait for DNA samples to be matched.

Swedish police are usually cautious about naming suspects and would not normally do so ahead of charges being laid, but Ms Bergqvist said they expected to make an exception in this case and release a name in the coming days.

Risbergska school provides adult education for people aged over 20 who did not finish primary or secondary school, as well as Swedish classes for immigrants.

Young residents in Orebro had already expressed fears of a racial element to the shooting, and the Syrian statement confirmed that immigrants were among the victims.

Sweden’s TV4 channel broadcast a video recorded from a school toilet during the gun attack, in which the words “away from Europe!” can be heard.

It is not clear who shouted the words and police have been careful not to discuss a motive.

However, Ms Bergqvist appeared to row back the initial statement from authorities on Tuesday that the motive for the attack was not ideological.

“Why they said that, I cannot comment,” she said. “We are looking at different motives, we will declare it when we have it.”

Rickard Andersson has been described locally as a recluse and one report by Swedish website Aftonbladet suggested his attack may have targeted local social services.

A source told the site that he had argued with a social worker after he had lost his welfare benefits because he had not done enough to find work.

Police on Tuesday had said that the suspect had no previous convictions, no apparent links to gangs and they did not believe the attack was motivated by terrorism.