Stockholm twin blasts leave one dead, two injured

STOCKHOLM - At least one person was killed and two others were injured in twin explosion in central Stockholm in Sweden on Saturday, causing panic among Christmas shoppers.

The Guardian quoted a Swedish news agency as saying that it had received an email warning, ahead of the explosions, in which a threat made against Sweden and its population was linked to the country’s military presence in Afghanistan.

The TT agency further said the warning, which comprised sound files in Swedish and Arabic, was also sent to Sweden’s security police (SAPO) and was received 10 minutes before the blasts.

The first explosion took place at around 5pm near the busy shopping street of Drottinggatan in the centre of the Swedish capital, and was in a car containing gas canisters. The dead man was found at the site of the second blast about 300 metres away.

The paper quoted police spokesman Ulf Johansson as saying that the car had exploded with a series of minor explosions.

There was also some kind of explosion close to where we found the dead man. We need more investigation and of course we need more witnesses to give us the information of what actually has happened,” he added.

Sweden, which has so far been spared terrorist attacks of the type suffered by the UK in July 2005 and Spain in March 2004, raised its terror threat alert level from low to elevated in October because of a “shift in activities” among Swedish-based groups. (ANI)