Shooting fatalities in the heavily migrant-populated Swedish city of Malmö are set to exceed 2017’s total, the morbid statistic propelled forward by the recent gang shooting in the area.
The multicultural city has been dealing with a fresh wave of criminal gang violence which surged earlier this week when three people were killed outside an internet cafe in an apparent drive-by shooting.
In 2017 across the entire southern police region, including Malmö and the city of Lund, ten people were killed in shootings, while deaths as a result of shootings across the whole country have also seen a rapid increase rising from 17 dead in 2011 to 40 in 2017.
Of the 40 victims of shootings in 2017, all but one were men, broadcaster Sveriges Radio reports.
According to group chief of the Swedish National Forensic Centre’s (NFC) weapons group Mikael Högfors, criminals are firing far more shots than they were in previous years which he said could be a result of more weapons and ammunition being available on cities’ streets.
In January, Bosnian prosecutor Goran Glamocanin claimed that Sweden had become the largest market for underground weapons from the region.
“According to the information we have now, the Swedish market is the most attractive in Europe. It is because of the high demand,” he said.
Others, like Swedish police officer Gunnar Appelgren, have also asserted that other weapons like hand grenades have become easy to access for criminals.
“Some groups initially estimated that hand grenades are good for scaring or attacking another group. Then you are in a spiral, where hand grenades become part of the weapons used in these gang conflicts,” he said.