Swedish police on Saturday identified the victim killed in a sword attack at Brinell High School in the town of Fagersta as a 17-year-old female student. The victim's family has been notified, but authorities declined to release further details.
The principal of Brinell School confirmed that the 18-year-old suspect was a former student. The individual entered the school building on Friday afternoon, just days after the summer break ended, and was arrested at the scene.
In the attack, two male students, aged 12 and 17, were seriously injured, with one requiring emergency surgery. A third victim sustained minor injuries and has been discharged from the hospital.
By Saturday morning, the area outside Brinell School had become a memorial site with candles, flowers, and many visitors, including Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and opposition leader Magdalena Andersson. Political parties across the country paused their election campaigning ahead of the September election to honor the victim.
An unnamed police source said investigators are examining whether the suspect had ties to online communities that promote school violence. Police are reviewing a TikTok account that was taken down a few hours after the attack, which posted an image of a sword 20 minutes before the incident and had posted videos related to previous school attacks in Sweden as well as Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik.
Prosecutors have ordered the suspect detained on charges of murder and multiple counts of attempted murder. Police said they have conducted about 80 interviews and plan to question nearly all of the school's approximately 450 staff and students.
The incident has raised concerns about school safety in Sweden, which experienced its deadliest shooting in history last year in Orebro with 10 deaths, and the 2015 sword attack in Trollhattan that killed three, which authorities considered a hate crime driven by racial motives.
