In a shocking incident at a secondary school in Sweden, an individual wielding a sword has claimed one life and left three others injured. Authorities report that police neutralized the threat by shooting and apprehending the suspect.
The attack unfolded on Friday afternoon at Brinell High School in Fagersta, a central town with a population of approximately 13,000 residents.
Marking the end of the summer break, this was the first day back for some students, underscoring the tragedy’s impact on the school community.
During a press briefing, police identified the suspect as an 18-year-old male. He was shot by law enforcement and detained on allegations of murder.
Tommy Alriksson, local police chief, commended the swift response by officers to the emergency at the institution, which serves 450 students aged 16 to 20.
“The first patrol entered and let us know that the perpetrator was subdued with gunfire,” he said.
Public broadcaster SVT, citing unnamed sources, reported the attacker, wearing a helmet and carrying a sword, was a former student at the school with a previous conviction for assault.
The local health authority said two victims were teenage boys who were severely injured.
A third injured person was released from hospital.
“First it was just a regular day really. But then … I saw a guy all covered in blood, at least down his back anyway. Then I saw the police and they flooded in,” one Brinell student, Nellie, told Reuters alongside her mother Agnes Strandberg after a five-hour lockdown at the school.
Another student, Abdulrahem Salmo, said he had seen a victim with a bloody stab wound in the arm.
“Then people called the police and we just all ran from there because we were afraid,” he told SVT.
Several other schools and public buildings in Fagersta were also initially locked down.
Fagersta mayor Asa-Marta Sjostrom said the small town was shaken.
“Our and the school’s main focus right now is to take care of our students and our employees,” she told reporters.
“We are working together … to create safety and provide support to those who need it.”
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson cancelled a speech he was due to hold on Saturday, news agency TT reported.
“Our thoughts are with all those affected,” he wrote in a post on social media platform X.
Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf said in a statement released by the royal household that he received news of the attack “with dismay and sadness”.
Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson, whose coalition leads opinion polls for next month’s parliamentary election, said: “All of Sweden stands together with Fagersta at this difficult time.”
According to the Aftonbladet daily, police were investigating a TikTok account in connection with Friday’s violence that posted a picture of a sword 20 minutes before the attack.
Dagens Nyheter newspaper said the picture appeared to be taken in a restroom at the school based on details in the background.
Before the month-old account was taken down on Friday, it contained videos that referred to two episodes of mass violence in Sweden along with Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik.
Sweden’s worst mass shooting occurred in February 2025 at a school in the south-central city of Orebro, when a gunman killed 10 people before turning the weapon on himself.
In 2015, a masked swordsman killed a teaching assistant and two boys at a school in Trollhattan, western Sweden, before being shot dead by police, who later said the attack was racially motivated.