One killed in sword attack at Swedish school

STOCKHOLM:

An attacker with a sword killed one person and wounded several others on Friday at a high school in central Sweden, authorities said, while media reported the perpetrator had been shot by police.

“An assailant armed with a sword has entered Brinellskolan and wounded several people,” the Fagersta municipality said in a statement, adding the assailant had been detained by police. Aftonbladet newspaper reported that a person wielding a machete had been shot in the leg by police.

The municipality did not specify the number of wounded but said police were searching the school and that other schools in the area had been locked down. ‌‌police later told a press conference that one ‌person had been killed in the sword ‌attack. Public broadcaster SVT said ambulances, police cars as well as a police helicopter were outside the school in the small city of about 12,000 inhabitants.

Sweden has seen some high-profile attacks at educational institutions. In February 2025, a 35-year-old man killed 10 people at an adult education centre in Orebro – Sweden’s worst mass shooting. Police said it was motivated by the killer’s wish to end his life because of financial and psychological woes.

In March 2022, an 18-year-old student fatally stabbed two teachers at a secondary school in the southern city of Malmo. And in October 2015, three people were killed in a racially motivated attack at a school in the western town of Trollhattan by a sword-wielding assailant who was killed by police.