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Smoke rises from a house in Gothenburg: the cause of the explosion is still unclear
Photo: Bjorn Larsson Rosvall / dpa
Several people were injured, some seriously, in a powerful explosion in the Swedish city of Gothenburg on Tuesday morning.
The background to the explosion is still unclear.
"It is obvious that a criminal offense cannot be ruled out," said Interior Minister Mikael Damberg.
The investigators assumed that the explosion did not have a natural origin, as police spokesman Thomas Fuxborg said on site in the morning.
It is probably something that has been placed in the place, but this has to be seen first.
The police opened preliminary investigations into general destruction.
There were initially no suspects.
For hours after the explosion, smoke continued to pour out from inside the building.
Gas leak or explosive charge?
Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Löfven expressed his condolences to those affected. "Gothenburg should feel that it has the support of the whole country," he said in the afternoon at a press conference in Stockholm. Like Interior Minister Mikael Damberg at his side, Löfven did not want to participate in speculation that the incident could have a connection to organized gang crime. He added, however, "Everyone should know that society is always stronger than crime."
The newspaper “Aftonbladet” had previously reported that a person lives in the house who has testified several times in trials against gang members. This is not officially confirmed. According to information from the newspaper »Göteborgs-Posten«, the police work with two theories about the cause of the explosion: a gas leak or a deliberately placed explosive charge.
According to the police, the detonation occurred early Tuesday morning in an apartment building in the Annedal district.
Afterwards, fires broke out in the building, residents occasionally escaped through windows and balconies outside, as reported by the broadcasting station SVT.
With reference to the head of operations, it was initially said that the explosion had occurred in the courtyard of the apartment building.
As a result, fires started in several staircases.
Hundreds of people were therefore brought to safety.
At least 16 injured
Different information was available on the number of injuries.
Police spokesman Fuxborg spoke of around 20 people who had come to the hospital, the rescue workers on site of six seriously injured.
According to TT news agency, at least 16 people were taken to Sahlgrenska University Hospital.
Four of them were seriously injured.
Among them were three women and one man who are all over 50 years old.
According to the SVT, three of them were still in the intensive care unit in the afternoon.
In Sweden there have been deliberately caused detonations again and again in recent years, the background of which lies in the criminal gang milieu.
Larger cities such as Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö are particularly affected, but in isolated cases also smaller towns.
ptz / AFP / dpa