Child soldiers, executions, bombs: Deadly gang violence turns Sweden into a ‘war zone’

Sweden is in the grip of a gun crime crisis. In 2022, there were 391 shootings in the county, and escalating gang violence has seen 11 people killed in September alone. ‘It’s like a war zone’, one witness tells Jakob Illeborg, who finds fear and loathing of foreigners rife in the new gun murder capital of Europe

People look at the damage the day after an explosion hit an apartment building in Hässelby, Sweden (FREDRIK SANDBERG)

Linda, a Swede in her forties, is standing in the doorway with her children. She looks visibly upset and tired.

“I didn’t sleep much last night, I can’t take it anymore,” she tells The Independent. “The murders, the bombs, the constant police presence on the ground and police helicopters in the air. Me and my children need to get out of here. We need to move.”

Linda lives in a block of flats in Hasselby, a suburb west of Stockholm, where a bomb exploded on September 25.