Swedish authorities look into reasons behind fatal school shooting

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Swedish police are investigating the possible motives of an attacker who killed 11 people, including himself.
The attack at an adult school in Orebro, Sweden is the country’s deadliest mass shooting.
Police say the shooter was possibly a former student at the school.

A gunman who killed 11 people, including himself, at an adult education centre in central Sweden may have been a student at the school, police said on Thursday, as they described chaotic scenes after the country’s deadliest mass shooting as being like an “inferno”.

Police believe the suspected killer acted alone in Tuesday’s attack on an educational campus in Orebro, about 200 km west of Stockholm.

Swedish police found three rifles near the body of the gunman, who they believe took his own life.

“The police who arrived at the scene have spoken about what could be described as an inferno … dead people and injured people, screams and smoke,” Orebro police chief Lars Wiren said.

Police found 10 empty bullet magazines and a “large amount” of unused ammunition. Wiren said police arrived on the scene five minutes after the alarm was raised and believed the attacker then began directing his fire towards them.

“After approximately one hour, the acute operation was over when the suspected perpetrator was found dead with several weapons near him,” Wiren said, adding that police had not opened fire during the incident.

Survivors barricaded themselves in classrooms and hid under beds to escape the killer. When they were released by police, they spoke of seeing pools of blood where victims had been shot. Police are still working to formally identify the dead.

Six people were admitted to a local hospital in the wake of the attack, five of whom required surgery for gunshot wounds. All were now in stable condition though two remained in intensive care, regional authorities said in a statement.

What could have motivated the attack?

Swedish authorities have said there was no evidence so far that the shooter, who was not previously known to police, had “ideological motives”.

“We don’t see a clear motive, but we’re looking for it,” police investigations leader Anna Bergqvist said. “It’s a very difficult question, but it’s really important for all of us to be able to present a motive as soon as possible.”

Police said in a statement that there was information indicating that he had been a student at the school. “That is something we will have to look closer at,” Bergqvist told the press conference.

Police have not confirmed the name of the suspect and are awaiting genetic, dental and fingerprint data before making a conclusive identification.

The Risbergska adult education centre, where the attack took place, offers adult courses and Swedish language classes for immigrants.

While police have yet to disclose the identities of the victims, Syria’s embassy in Stockholm wrote on Facebook that Syrian citizens were among the dead, without specifying how many. Bosnia’s foreign ministry said separately its embassy had been informed by relatives that one Bosnian citizen had been killed and another wounded in the attack.