One person has died and three others were injured after an 18-year-old man armed with a sword attacked a high school in Fagersta, Sweden, on Friday.
Gatekeepers News reports that Police shot the suspect in the leg before arresting him. He remains in police custody.
Two of the three injured victims are in serious condition, while the third sustained minor injuries and has been discharged from hospital.
Police said they received an alert about the attack at Brinell School at about 2:06pm local time.
The school, located northwest of Stockholm, had recently reopened after the summer holidays, with the attack occurring on the first day back for some students.
“At 2.16pm the perpetrator was fought off and arrested, and in connection with this, effective fire was fired,” police said in a statement.
“A deceased person was found at the scene, and there are also reports of three injured people who had left the school when the police entered.
“According to the medical services, two of them are considered seriously injured and one is considered to have minor injuries.”
Police identified the suspect as an 18-year-old man and said they had carried out several investigative measures, including two searches of properties linked to him.
Authorities said they were not searching for any other suspects and that there was currently no threat to the public.
‘The perpetrator was subdued with gunfire’
Tommy Alriksson, local police chief, said officers responded quickly after receiving the alert.
The school has about 450 students aged between 16 and 20.
“The first patrol entered and let us know that the perpetrator was subdued with gunfire,” Alriksson said.
Local broadcaster SVT, citing unnamed sources, reported that the suspect was a former student of the school and had previously been convicted of assault. It also reported that he was wearing a helmet and carrying a sword during the attack.
The local health authority said two teenage boys were among those severely injured.
Students described scenes of panic during the attack.
“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,” Nellie, a student at Brinell School, said alongside her mother, Agnes Strandberg, after spending five hours in lockdown.
Another student, Abdulrahem Salmo, told SVT that he saw a victim with a bloody stab wound to the arm.
“Then people called the police and we just all ran from there because we were afraid,” he said.
Eight other schools in the area were placed under precautionary lockdown following the attack. The lockdown was later lifted, while authorities declared a state of high alert in the Vastmanland region.
Fagersta municipality said the attacker had entered Brinell School and wounded several people before being detained by police.
Ambulances, police vehicles and a police helicopter were deployed to the school in Fagersta, a town with a population of about 12,000.
Motive remains unclear
The motive for the attack remains unknown.
Police spokesman Pelle Vamstad said investigators would examine available camera footage as part of the preliminary investigation.
The municipality convened a crisis meeting after the incident and deployed specially trained crisis counsellors to support victims and their families.
Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer said the government was in close contact with police.
“We have been informed of a serious incident in Fagersta. The police are on site and working very intensively with the incident,” Strommer said in a statement to Reuters.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson also expressed concern over the attack.
“A serious incident has occurred today in Fagersta at a school, right after the summer break,” he wrote on X.
“There are reports of injured people. We do not yet know what lies behind the act, but we know that the police are working very intensively.”
He urged the public to allow emergency services to carry out their work and said, “Our thoughts are with all those affected.”
Education and Integration Minister Simona Mohamsson said she had received “terrible news” from the school and that the government was monitoring developments.
Green Party spokesman Daniel Helldén described the incident as “terribly tragic”, while Labour Party leader Magdalena Andersson said, “All of Sweden stands together with Fagersta at this difficult time.”
Previous attacks on Swedish schools
The incident comes amid a history of high-profile attacks at Swedish educational institutions.
In February 2025, a 35-year-old man killed 10 people at an adult education centre in Orebro in what became Sweden’s worst mass shooting. Police said the attack was motivated by the perpetrator’s desire to end his life amid financial and psychological problems.
In March 2022, an 18-year-old student fatally stabbed two teachers at a secondary school in Malmo.
In 2015, a masked man armed with a sword and a large knife killed two teachers and a pupil at a school in Trollhattan.
The 21-year-old attacker, who reportedly posed with students before beginning the killings, was shot dead by police. Authorities later described the attack as racially motivated.
Niclas Hallgren, chief of police in Trollhattan at the time, said the attacker had selected victims based on their skin colour.
“He chose dark skinned people, not white. We are convinced it was a hate crime with a racist perspective,” Hallgren said.
“He was dressed in a way that suggested a racist background [and] video at the scene showed he acted in a military fashion. His actions and the way he looked draws the mind to the Nazis,” he added.
