Stockholm blasts: Sweden probes 'terrorist attack'

Two explosions in Sweden's capital Stockholm are being investigated as a "crime of terror", officials say.

A car blew up in a busy shopping area on Saturday afternoon, followed moments later by a second explosion nearby.

Witnesses said a man found dead after the second blast had been carrying an explosive device. Two people were hurt.

Swedish PM Fredrik Reinfeldt condemned the attacks as unacceptable in an open society with a functioning democracy that respects different cultures.

"Our democracy functions well," he told a press conference. "Those who feel frustration or anger have the opportunity to express it without resorting to violence."
Lone operator?

Swedish security police have not yet released the dead man's name, although director of operations Anders Thornberg says they now have a clearer idea about him.
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Analysis
Stephen Evans BBC News, Stockholm

Police are still trying to link these three events: the emails, the explosion in the car, and then the death of the man.

The prime minister and the security services are taking great pains to say: "Hold on a minute, let's not jump to conclusions, let's actually form those links".

But you've only got to surmise at the death of the man, through explosives that he was carrying, a short time after the explosions in the car, to assume there was a link between the two.

The bigger question is whether it was only him involved, whether he had set off the explosions in the car somehow, and then fled, either deliberately setting off the explosives on himself as a suicide bombing or accidentally setting them off.

They're also trying to work out whether there were more people involved in a conspiracy in Sweden and even more people involved in a conspiracy going outside the country.

"As far as we know it looks like he has been working for himself but we don't know, we have to make that really sure," he said.

"So we are investigating whether there could be more perpetrators. We don't know."

Swedish media have named a 28-year-old man of Iraqi origin as the suspected bomber.

Police are investigating a set of e-mails sent shortly before the blasts threatening attacks because Sweden had sent troops to Afghanistan.

Sweden has some 500 soldiers deployed in Afghanistan as part of the international military force.

The e-mails, with MP3 audio files in Swedish and Arabic, were sent to the Swedish security service and the TT news agency.

They called for "mujahideen" - or Islamist fighters - to rise up in Sweden and Europe, promising Swedes would "die like our brothers and sisters".

They also attacked the country for caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad drawn by Swedish artist Lars Vilks.

"The mail was about one man," police spokesman Ulf Goranzon told a press conference on Sunday.

"He was not satisfied with developments in Sweden regarding [the fact] that we have military troops in other countries, that there had been protests and that there have been said bad things about the Prophet [Muhammad]."

Sweden has a reputation for openness and tolerance, but in recent years, tensions have risen, the BBC's Stephen Evans in Stockholm says.

There has been resentment at immigration as the economy has stuttered, and some Muslims have grown more militant.

In September, the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats won 20 seats in parliament, taking 5.7% of the vote.

If confirmed as a suicide bombing, the attack would be the first of its kind in Sweden. However, Swedish citizens have been linked to suicide bomb plots abroad.

On Thursday, a court in Gothenburg found two Swedish citizens of Somali origin guilty of planning suicide attacks in Somalia.

The imam of Stockholm's main mosque, Sheik Hassan Mussa, said in a statement he deplored "all forms of attacks, violence fears and threats against innocent people, whatever the motive or pretext."

bbc.co.uk/news/

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