Sweden probes cyber networks after girl dies in school sword attack

STOCKHOLM: Swedish police are investigating whether an 18-year-old man who attacked students at a high school with a sword on Friday, killing one, was involved in online communities promoting school violence, a police source said. The attacker struck at a school in the central Swedish town of Fagersta, also severely injuring two teenage boys before being arrested by police. The parents of a 17-year-old girl told local newspaper Fagersta-Posten that their daughter was killed in the attack.

Police are investigating whether a TikTok account that posted a picture of a sword 20 minutes before the assault belonged to the suspect, the source told Reuters. According to the Dagens Nyheter newspaper, the image appeared to have been taken in a restroom at the school.



Before it was taken down on Friday, the month-old account contained videos that referred to two episodes of mass violence in Sweden and to Norwegian far-right mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik. One of the videos referenced a 2015 attack in which a masked swordsman killed a teaching assistant and two boys at a school in Trollhattan.

Several party leaders cancelled planned speeches on Saturday, pausing campaigning ahead of the Sept 13 election. On Saturday, the police clarified that the suspect in the Fagersta attack had not been shot, contrary to what they had said on Friday.

This is an AFP story
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