A truck drove into people in a street in central Stockholm Friday, reportedly killing at least three people and injuring several others in what authorities believe is a terrorist attack.
“Sweden has been attacked. Everything points to a terrorist attack,” Prime Minister Stefan Löfven told reporters on Friday afternoon.
The truck was reportedly stolen from its driver in central Stockholm a little before 3 p.m. local time from the Swedish brewery company Spendrups.
“During a delivery to the restaurant Caliente someone jumped into the driver’s cabin and drove off with the car, while the driver [was unloading],” communication director Mårten Lyth told the TT news agency.
The truck then hit several pedestrians on Drottninggatan, one of the city’s major pedestrian streets before crashing into the department store Åhléns.
In a press conference afterward, police officials said the driver of the truck was still at large and put a call out for a man in a dark hoodie who was seen in the area, releasing an image from surveillance cameras.
The city quickly went into lockdown as police conducted searches of nearby buildings and shut down the subway. In a statement, police urged people to avoid the area around Sergels Square.
European leaders responded with condemnations of the attack.
“The relentless fight against terrorism must be a priority of European solidarity,” said French President François Hollande in a statement.
European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted: “My heart is in #Stockholm this afternoon. My thoughts are with the victims and their families and friends of today’s terrible attack.”
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said: “An attack on any of our member states is an attack on us all.”
Martin Schulz, the leader of the German Social Democrats, said: “Terrorism will never prevail.”
Source: http://www.politico. eu/article/truck-rams-into- people-on-stockholm- pedestrian-street-police/
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