Shooting at Israeli company in Sweden, no injuries: police, media

Stockholm: An office of Israeli military technology firm Elbit Systems in Gothenburg was the target of a shooting Thursday, according to media, with Swedish police saying there were no injuries.

 

Police told AFP that they had responded to a shooting “against an Israeli object in Kalleback” in Gothenburg, a coastal city in southwestern Sweden.

 

They added that no injuries had been reported and that a young suspect had been arrested.

 

Newspaper Aftonbladet said the suspect was under the age of 15.

 

An investigation has been opened into “attempted murder” and an “aggravated weapons crime,” police spokesman Fredrik Svedemyr said.

 

Svedemyr said police had sent several patrols and a helicopter to the scene.

 

Elbit Systems said in an email to AFP that they “currently had no comment.”

 

In early June, police said they had found a “suspected explosive object” outside the offices of the military technology firm, known for its unmanned aerial systems.

 

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, there have been several incidents apparently targeting Israeli interests in Sweden.

 

In February, police found a grenade on the grounds of the Israeli embassy compound, which the ambassador said was an attempted attack.

 

In mid-May, gunshots were fired outside the Israeli embassy, which prompted the country to boost security measures around Israeli interests and Jewish community institutions.

 

The Scandinavian country’s intelligence agency Sapo said in late May that Iran was recruiting members of Swedish criminal gangs to commit “acts of violence” against Israeli and other interests in Sweden — a claim Iran denied.

 

Last week, police said once again that it was stepping up security around Israeli and Jewish interests in response to a second shooting at the Israeli embassy in Stockholm and twin blasts, suspected to be caused by hand grenades, outside the Israeli embassy in neighboring Denmark.

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