A 16-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with a fatal shooting that claimed the lives of three young people in Uppsala, Sweden, on Tuesday, according to the BBC and local authorities.
The suspect allegedly fled the scene on an electric scooter after opening fire inside a hair salon in the city center, triggering a large-scale police manhunt. Authorities confirmed at a press conference that the shooter is under the age of 18.
The victims, all aged between 15 and 20, have yet to be officially identified, said regional police chief Erik Åkerlund, adding that “their identities are not 100% confirmed.”
One of the victims was reportedly known to the police and had been previously involved in an investigation into a planned attack on a relative of gang leader Ismail Abdo, though they were never formally charged. Abdo, nicknamed “Strawberry,” is considered a prominent figure in Sweden’s organized crime network.
This tragedy adds to a growing wave of youth-related gang violence in Sweden, where teenagers are increasingly being drawn into serious criminal activity ranging from vandalism to murder. The situation has escalated since 2023, when Abdo’s mother was murdered in her home in Uppsala, sparking a surge in retaliatory violence.
In response to the rising threat, the Swedish government has proposed controversial new legislation that would allow police to wiretap children under the age of 15, even without specific evidence of wrongdoing. Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer, speaking at a scheduled press conference on gang violence, acknowledged the privacy concerns but said the move was crucial to preventing the recruitment of children as young as 10 or 11 into criminal gangs.
The government also intends to tighten firearm regulations, as electric scooters have frequently been used by gang members to escape after shootings.
Uppsala, located roughly 40 minutes north of Stockholm, has seen a spike in gang-related shootings over the past decade, though violence in the city center remains rare. The latest killings come just months after Sweden’s deadliest mass shooting occurred in February, when a 35-year-old gunman killed 10 people in Örebro.
Police say the motive behind Tuesday’s attack remains unclear and that investigations are ongoing.
