Residents of the Swedish city of Karlstad have expressed concerns after the city saw two shootings in a two-night period, sending victims to the hospital with gunshot wounds.
The first shooting sent one individual to hospital after the shots came through a window into their apartment. One suspect was later arrested in connection with the shooting.
The second incident, which took place in the centre of the city, saw another person hospitalised as a result, SVT reports.
Several residents in the Herrhagen area in Karlstad expressed concerns saying they had heard the shots from their homes. “It’s not fun to have lived so close, it feels pretty awful,” said local resident Roland Nillson, who lives in the apartment block where one of the shootings occurred.
Mattias Forssten, of the Karstad police, said that residents should not be concerned about being shot in the city, claiming the incidents were “linked to a specific criminal environment.”
Last year Sweden saw a record number of fatal shootings and the overall number of shootings in the country has remained high this year.
According to SVT, many young men in gangs are now buying bulletproof vests, which are sometimes sold by the Swedish Enforcement Authority — a government agency that handles debt collection — at auction.
Some police have called for a ban on the sale of bulletproof vests to the public. Liberal politician Allan Widman also supports such a ban, saying: “The use of protective vests lowers the threshold for the use of firearms. In my hometown of Malmö, we have young people who openly move around with a protective vest. And that creates a lot of insecurity among people.”
According to Anders Thornberg, the head of the Swedish Security Service (Säpo), the shootings rate in Sweden is unlikely to significantly decrease in the short term. In June, Thornberg claimed that it could take as long as five to ten years before a major decrease occurs.