Police and rescue services on site at Brinellskolan high school after a man with a sword injured several people in Fagersta, Sweden, Friday. Photo by Fredrik Sandberg/EPA
Aug. 21 (UPI) — A man wielding a sword entered a Swedish high school and injured three people Friday before being shot and arrested by police.
Police were called at 2 p.m. local time at Brinelskolan School in Fagersta, Sweden. The students had just returned from summer break this week.
Two of the three people were seriously injured. Local media reported that the attacker was shot in the leg by police, the BBC reported.
Eight other area schools were put on lockdown, but that has since been lifted. A state of high alert was declared for the Vastmanland region. Fagersta, a town of about 12,000 residents, is about 105 miles northwest of Stockholm.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson posted on X that a “serious incident” happened in Fagersta.
“There are reports of injured people. We do not yet know what lies behind the act, but we know that the police are working very intensively. I want to ask everyone to let the police and emergency services work undisturbed. Our thoughts are with all those affected,” the post said.
School attacks have happened in Sweden several times in recent years.
In February 2025, 11 people, including the gunman, were killed in an attack on an adult education center in Orebro. It was Sweden’s worst-ever mass shooting. After the attack, the government tightened gun laws because the suspect had legally owned four rifles. He had brought three of them to the attack.
Two teachers were killed with a knife at a high school in Malmo in 2022, and an 18-year-old later confessed to the killings.
In 2015, three people were killed in a sword attack in Trollhattan, Sweden.
