From January 1st, 2018, to September of this year, Sweden has seen a total of 1,296 shootings, with 169 people killed as a result and another 460 injured.
The number of shootings increased year on year from 2018 to 2020, with last year seeing a total of 376 shootings overall.
According to police statistics presented by Swedish broadcaster SVT, the number of fatal shootings, 169 overall, has remained somewhat steady at 43 in both 2018 and 2019 and rising to 47 in 2020. This year, so far, there have been 36 fatal shootings, 75 injuries, and 242 shootings overall.
Of the 1,296 shootings, Stockholm and its urban area saw the most at 301, followed by the multicultural city of Malmö with 112 shootings. In third place is the city of Gothenburg, which saw a police officer fatally shot, allegedly by a teenager, over the summer.
When broken down into age groups, young people aged 15 to 34 make up the largest number of those both injured and killed in shootings.
For those 14 and under, one child has died as a result of a shooting, a 12-year-old caught in a gang shooting crossfire who was killed outside a McDonald’s restaurant in August of 2020 in Botkyrka.
This week, there have been several new shootings in Sweden, including on Thursday evening when a man was shot in Farsta in Stockholm, resulting in his hospitalisation with serious, but not life-threatening, injuries.
Police say they found a car they believe is linked to the shooting but as of Friday, stated that they currently have made no arrests in the case.
Also on Thursday evening, a man in his 20s in Staffanstorp was found with gunshot wounds after police had been alerted to a shooting at around 8:30 pm.
“He was awake and speaking when we arrived at the scene, but I have no information about the status of his injuries,” police press officer Jimmy Modin said, and added: “We are talking to residents in the area who may have seen or heard something. We will also be looking for evidence on the ground.”
Both shootings are being treated as attempted murder.
Many of the shootings in Sweden are believed to be linked to criminal gang activity. In June, Police Commissioner Erik Nord of the Greater Gothenburg region said that the rise in fatal shootings was linked to mass migration.
“It is no longer a secret today that much of the problem of gang and network crime with the shootings and explosions have been linked to migration to Sweden in recent decades,” Nord said.
“When, like me, you have the opportunity to follow matters at the individual level, you see that virtually everyone who shoots or is shot in gang conflicts originates from the Balkans, the Middle East, North or East Africa,” he added.