Three people were injured by police gunfire in Norrköping in southern Sweden, Swedish police announced on Sunday.
Violent clashes shook Sweden this weekend between law enforcement and demonstrators protesting against a far-right group that prides itself on burning the Koran during its public gatherings.
“The police fired several warning shots.
Three people appear to have been hit by ricochets and are currently being treated in hospital,” police said in a statement.
The three injured, whose condition is not known, are also "under arrest, suspected of a crime", it is specified.
According to the health services quoted by the local agency TT, ten people were hospitalized with minor injuries following these clashes as well as similar clashes in the neighboring town of Linköping.
The city of Malmö (south) was also plagued by various episodes of violence overnight from Saturday to Sunday.
"There were fires at various locations overnight in Malmö," law enforcement said in a statement.
In particular, garbage cans, a bus and a car were burned, it is specified.
Several complaints of vandalism have been filed.
📸 Photos: Riots break out on the street at night in Malmö, southern #Sweden, to protest against the leader of a far-right Danish party, Rasmus Paludan, who burned a copy of the Koran.
pic.twitter.com/EGJrpf13yQ
– TV era (@ERETV_fr) April 17, 2022
The incidents erupted after a rally by the 'Hardline' anti-immigration and anti-Islam movement led by Danish-Swedish Rasmus Paludan, who is currently on a tour of Sweden that has created several clashes between police and counter-protesters in several cities in Sweden.
12 police officers injured a few days ago
Mr. Paludan's rally on Saturday had been moved from a district of Landskrona to a car park in Malmö, the neighboring large city, in order to avoid overflows.
However, protests had broken out in different parts of Malmö, with stone throwing at the police.
“It calmed down around 3 a.m., there were a few fires but the violence died down,” police spokeswoman Kim Hild told public radio SR, indicating that no member of the forces of the order had been injured.
On Thursday and Friday, around 12 police officers were injured in clashes with participants in counter-protests against Mr. Paludan.
