Deadliest Gun Violence in Swedish History

Sweden’s deadliest gun violence occurred on Tuesday, February 16, 2020, when at least 11 people were killed in an attack on an adult education center.
The shooting began as many students were returning home after exams, starting at around 12:30 p.m. local time.
Swedish police said the gunman was likely among the dead; his motive remained unclear, along with the exact number of injured and victims. Swedish police said they had not found any suspicious links to terrorism, but warned that the death toll could rise given the severity of some of the injured.
However, important elements of the incident must be considered; the educational institution where the incident occurred is Campus Risbergska High School, which is intended for students over 20 years old; the high school also offers Swedish language classes for immigrants, vocational training and programs for people with disabilities.
The deadly shooting in Sweden on Tuesday sent shockwaves across Europe; European Union officials, along with Swedish officials, issued statements expressing their position on the incident.
Swedish Prime Minister Olof Kristersson called the incident the worst mass shooting in Sweden in a news conference after the tragedy in the suburb of Örebro, 200 kilometers from the Swedish capital, Stockholm.
"Today we have witnessed brutal and deadly violence against completely innocent people; this is the worst mass shooting in Swedish history," he said. Many questions remain unanswered and I cannot answer them either.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, issued a message calling the shooting incident in Sweden horrific and claiming that such violence has no place in European society!
January of Terror
Sweden witnessed an unprecedented wave of armed violence in January 2025 (January/February), which caused terror to reign on the streets of the country.
The 30 bombings in Sweden in January show the collapse of Sweden’s overall policies in various areas, especially security.
Gun violence in Swedish schools
Swedish officials say that armed violence in schools in the country is rare; however, a number of Swedish schools have witnessed violent incidents in recent years, including those using knives and axes, which left a number injured or killed.
At the same time, according to Swedish media reports, the escalation of violence in schools in the country has become so common that in many cases, the media does not pay attention to them.
According to reports, between 2010 and 2022, about 10 people were killed in violent incidents in Swedish schools.
Yesterday’s incident also occurred in Sweden at an adult education center; Many of the students in Sweden’s adult education system are immigrants seeking to improve their primary education and earn a degree to help them learn the Swedish language to find jobs in the Nordic country.
Deadly violence in Sweden
Sweden is currently among the deadliest countries in Europe in terms of gun violence; only Albania and Montenegro have higher rates of gun violence per capita.
The southern Swedish city of Malmö has been ranked more dangerous than a number of cities in the Middle East’s terrorism crisis, according to a recent assessment.
Sweden has been grappling with a spate of shootings and bombings in recent years, driven by a problem of domestic gang crime, which has left the country of 10 million with by far the highest rate of gun violence per capita in the European Union.
The Swedish National Crime Prevention Council said the country’s homicide rate this year was the highest in the European Union.
At the same time, Sweden has a high level of gun ownership by European standards, largely related to hunting; a wave of gang-related crimes in Sweden has highlighted the high rate of illegal gun ownership.
Children and Teenagers; Sweden's Contract Killers
Sweden is currently facing a wave of gang-related crimes in which children and teenagers are the main perpetrators; these crimes range from espionage and sabotage to bombings and murder.
The head of the Swedish National Police said about the crisis: "We see teenagers aged 12, 13 and 14 carrying out violent missions; these missions are sent to them entirely on the digital crime market."
The Swedish Prime Minister announced on January 30, 2025, in an effort to control the crisis, the government intends to accelerate the passage of laws that allow the police to spy on children under the age of 15.
The law was originally scheduled to be ready by summer 2026, but the pace of the process has accelerated significantly as the crisis has intensified.
Criminal gangs in Sweden are increasingly recruiting children and teenagers to commit crimes through social media, especially Telegram.
Bomb-free zones
Following the escalation of organized and gang crime in Sweden, explosions have become so common across the country, especially in Stockholm, that real estate agencies in the Swedish capital have categorized areas based on their history of bombings.
Real estate agencies in Sweden are now advertising their properties as bomb-free zones, presenting them as an additional option.
Stockholm’s bomb-free zones are more attractive to buyers and tenants, with the aim of providing security.
Another crisis is that despite Stockholm police opposing the designation of a no-go zone, reports indicate that there are approximately 61 no-go zones in the Swedish capital.
In many cases, police have been forced to flee and retreat from no-go zones in Stockholm, according to videos posted on social media