Sweden's prime minister has summoned the head of the armed forces and the police commissioner in a bid to curb gang violence, he said Thursday, following a wave of violence that has claimed at least 11 lives in September alone.
Two people were killed in separate shootings in Stockholm on Wednesday, and a woman in her 20s, believed to be unrelated to the case, was killed when a bomb ripped through a house in Uppsala in the early hours of Thursday.
"This is a difficult time for Sweden. A 25-year-old woman went to bed last night on a completely normal night but never managed to wake up," Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said during a rare televised address to the nation. "We are going to hunt down the gangs, we will defeat them," he said.
Kristersson formed a center-right minority government after last year's election with the support of the populist, anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats, ending eight years of Social Democrat-led governments in Sweden.
His coalition won the election in part on a promise to curb rising gang violence and has launched a series of initiatives, such as greater powers for police and tougher punishments for gun crimes.
The measures have not yet come into force, but Kristersson blamed previous governments for the problems. "It is an irresponsible immigration policy and failed integration that has brought us here," Kristersson said.
Sweden had liberal immigration policies for many decades and welcomed more migrants per capita than any other European nation during the 2015 migration crisis. Those policies were repealed by the former Social Democrat-led government, but Kristersson's government has tightened them. About 20% of Sweden's 10.5 million people were born abroad.
Before the announcement, the opposition Social Democrats, the largest party in parliament, called on the government to change the law, allowing the military to help stop gang violence.
"This is not Sweden, this is not how Sweden is supposed to be," Social Democratic leader Magdalena Andersson said at a news conference.
Kristersson said he had summoned the national police commissioner and the supreme commander of the armed forces to evaluate the options.
Police estimate that around 30,000 people in Sweden are directly involved or have links to gang crime. Violence has also spread from major urban areas to smaller towns where violent crime was once rare.
Earlier this week, two people were shot dead and two others injured when a gunman opened fire in a bar in Sandviken. This month's 11 shooting deaths make September the deadliest month since December 2019.
"Criminal conflicts in Sweden are a serious threat to the country's security," National Police Commissioner Anders Thornberg said in a statement. "Innocents are being killed and injured. We are doing everything we can within the police and together with others to stop this development."
