Crime in Sweden: 2022 More people killed by gunshots than ever before

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Act of violence in Malmö in August: shots in a shopping center

Photo: JOHAN NILSSON / AFP

Never before in Sweden have so many people been shot dead within a year as in 2022. A man between the ages of 20 and 30 died of his injuries during the night.

The police said he was shot at in Kristianstad, about 100 kilometers northeast of Malmo, late the evening before. 

A good three months before the end of the year, the Scandinavian country has already registered 48 fatalities with gunshot wounds.

That's one more case than in 2020, the year with the highest number of fatal gunshot wounds to date.

In view of the gang crime in Sweden, police chief Anders Thornberg had warned a few days ago that the country was about to set a record.

If things continue as before, there could be more than 60 deaths from gunfire by the end of the year, he said in an interview with the TT news agency.

There are more firearms in circulation and young offenders in particular use them to kill.

Sweden has had a problem with criminal gangs for years.

Before the Swedish parliamentary elections on September 11, gang crime was one of the most important campaign issues.

The right-wing camp narrowly won the election.

The gang network is complex.

In his 2020 book "Gangsterparadiset" (The Gangster's Paradise), crime reporter Lasse Wierup estimated that there are now at least 350 criminal constellations in the country.

Among them are rockers, gangs and locally active networks struggling, among other things, for influence on the drug market.

bbr/dpa