Berliner Tageblatt - Swedish police identify 17-year-old girl as victim in school sword attack

Flowers and candles were left outside the Brinell school in Fagersta where Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and opposition leader Magdalena Andersson went on Saturday morning to honour the dead student and three wounded victims.

The 18-year-old attacker entered the school on Friday afternoon -- just days after the school in the town of 13,000 people had returned from its summer break. He has since been detained by police.

"The person killed in this incident is a young 17-year-old female. Her family has been informed," police said on their website without giving any other identity details.

Minnea, a Brinell student who also went to honour the victims on Saturday, told the SVT broadcaster: "It's terrible to think that someone you sat at the same table with, someone you talked to, is suddenly dead."

Local authorities said that two boys aged 12 and 17 were seriously wounded in the attack, with one of them requiring emergency surgery. The third sustained light injuries.

- Motive unknown -

Local police chief Tommy Alriksson told reporters on Friday that investigators were seeking a motive for the latest violence to shock Sweden.

"We are looking into several leads... We are trying, of course, to remain as open-minded as possible," Alriksson said.

But few details have emerged about the attacker.

SVT reported that the perpetrator had a previous assault conviction and wore a helmet and carried a sword -- reminiscent of a 2015 school attack in the western town of Trollhattan in which a 21-year-old killed three people in a racially motivated attack.

Media reported a TikTok account belonging to the youth was being investigated. The account has been taken down.

AFP viewed the account before it was taken down and it had several videos referencing school attacks. The last update showed a photo of a sword.

"The police investigation is proceeding at full speed," police added in their statement on Saturday.

So far, officers have conducted around 80 interviews and are planning to question nearly all the school's staff and students -- amounting to almost 450 people, according to police chief Alriksson. Two addresses linked to the attacker in Fagersta were also searched.

Nellie Strandberg, a 16-year-old Brinell student, said she was on her way to the school's library when the assailant entered the institution.

"We were just going to collect some things and get ready for Monday. Then I see I guy who's bloody all down his back," she told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.

Sweden has suffered other attacks at educational institutions. In February 2025, a 35-year-old man killed 10 people at an adult education centre in Orebro. In March 2022, an 18-year-old student stabbed two teachers to death at a secondary school in the southern city of Malmo.

T.Bondarenko--BTB