Multicultural Sweden: Bomb Found at Stockholm Cultural Festival

Swedish authorities discovered and safely detonated a bomb early Monday morning that was discovered in a central park in Stockholm, the site of an ongoing cultural festival.

Police were warned over a suspicious bag at around 9:40 pm Sunday night at the Kungsträdgården, a park in the centre of the Swedish capital that often hosts live events and open-air concerts during the summer months.

Police called in the bomb squad to assess and later dispose of the bag, which was later confirmed to contain an explosive device, according to a report from Swedish broadcaster SVT.

The Kungsträdgården has been hosting a cultural festival and due to the report of the suspicious bag, the concert taking place at the festival was halted and all participants were ordered to leave the area.

“The venue the Cultural Festival had on Karl XII’s square ended up inside the barrier and therefore had to be evacuated at the urging of the police. The audience was able to continue their evening in the festival’s other areas that were outside the police cordon,” Linnea Monteiro, festival director of Stockholm’s Cultural Festival said.

“They stopped playing and said we have to go. There are cops everywhere,” one witness told the newspaper Aftonbladet.

Ola Österling, the press spokesperson for the Stockholm police, said that while no one has been arrested in connection with the attempted bombing, investigations were underway to identify a suspect in the case.

“We will do a holistic analysis where we, among other things, look at surveillance cameras in Stockholm City to see if you can trace the person who put the bag there,” Österling said.

While Sweden has seen multiple bombs in recent years, the vast majority are usually linked to gang conflicts and take place in residential or commercial areas, rather than in public venues such as concerts and festivals.

Stockholm has been one of the main areas for bombings in recent years, with 2020 seeing a record 32 explosive incidents despite the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

Last year, Sweden saw at least 80 explosions across the country, which marked a slight decrease from 2020 but the number of bombings and explosions in Sweden still dwarfed any of its Scandinavian neighbours.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.