The Swedish capital city of Stockholm saw a record number of explosions and bombings in 2020 despite the Chinese coronavirus pandemic theoretically encouraging people to stay at home, according to police statistics.
Over the course of last year, Stockholm saw 32 explosions, the highest number ever recorded in the city and up from the 28 in 2019 and 23 in 2018.
Police statistics state that there were 107 explosions and bombings across the entire country in 2020, a figure down from 133 in 2019, Nyheter Idag reports.
Robert Karlsson, deputy regional police chief in Stockholm, said: “I’m not satisfied that there have been so many blasts. However, I am satisfied with the stranglehold on these networks.”
“We have been able to prevent serious crimes, such as explosions, murders, and attempted murders,” he added and claimed officers had developed new investigative methods for handling bombing and explosives cases.
In January of last year, it was noted that very few explosive cases ever end up with convictions due to the difficulty of prosecuting those involved.
In 2019, just seven people were convicted in bombing and explosion cases, with the Swedish Crime Prevention Council (Brå) noting that at least 257 incidents had been reported that year.
While Stockholm saw a record number of bombings in 2020, it was not the region that saw the most bombings overall. The southern region, which includes the Blekinge, Kalmar, Kronoberg, and Skåne counties, saw 40 bombings in total.
2020 also saw an increase in fatal shooting deaths according to police statistics, with 47 people killed as a result of firearms, compared to 42 fatal shootings in 2019 and 45 in 2018.
Late last year, Swedish media predicted that 2020 would be the most deadly year for shootings in Sweden ever, noting that by the 1st of December, the number of deaths had already surpassed that of 2019.
The number of shootings overall increased in 2020 as well with 366 reported cases, compared to 334 in 2019.