People leave flowers and candles at a makeshift memorial outside a school, one day after an attack carried out by a teen with a sword in Fagersta, Sweden, Saturday. A 17-year-old girl was killed and three others were injured at the school after the attack Friday. Photo by Magnus Lejhall/EPA
Aug. 22 (UPI) — A 17-year-old girl is dead after a sword attack at a Swedish high school on Friday.
Three students were injured, two of them seriously, in the attack in Fagersta, Sweden.
The alleged attacker is an 18-year-old, male student of the school who carried out the attack while classes were in session Friday. He was arrested and the police are investigating the case as murder and attempted murder. They said they have no reason to believe there were more attackers involved.
The Brinelskolan School principal told local news Saturday that the attacker was a student there.
Vastmanland County said the two injured boys are ages 12 and 17, ABC News reported. The third person is also younger than 18 and was slightly injured. That person has been discharged from the hospital, Swedish News agency TT reported.
The teen girl’s body was found when police entered the school to secure the premises, authorities said.
Police said they fired shots at the attacker, but didn’t hit him. Sweden’s national police said they have carried out two searches of homes connected to the suspect and that they expect to interview many witnesses.
“That’s why we can’t give out too much information, because we don’t want to influence witnesses,” Police Chief Tommy Alriksson said.
No official information on the attacker’s motive has been released.
On Saturday morning, people gathered at a memorial site that the town created, carrying flowers and lighting candles, CBS News reported.
Fagersta city government said it created a crisis center in a sports hall near the school. Fagersta is a town of about 12,000 about 105 miles northwest of Stockholm.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and opposition party leader Magdalena Andersson visited the memorial site to lay flowers.
“What must never happen has happened again,” Kristersson said.
Sweden’s parliamentary elections are scheduled for September, so the Swedish political parties suspended their campaigning Saturday.
School attacks have happened in Sweden several times in recent history.
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.
